Eight Lights
by Amicus Mortis
Summary: Sora has just woken from his yearlong sleep and is beginning another adventure to save his friends and the worlds, but a trip to Beast's Castle holds a wretched surprise: Kairi, fifteen years old, wearing the Organization's coat, attacking him with a keyblade. [Resumed 6/10/16]
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Sora! Wake up, Sora!"

"Go back to the Realm of Darkness!" the boy yelled, jumping so that his feet were under him as he crouched, Keyblade in hand. He surveyed his surroundings, finding himself in the Gummi Ship, orbiting above a world he had never seen before, and not a Heartless in sight. "Um..."

Sora turned his attention to Donald Duck, whose arms were crossed as he gave Sora a look that reminded him of the looks his mother would give him when he forgot to clean his room. His mind wandered to when he might get to see his mother again...

He shook his head. No time for such thoughts. He had to find Riku, then he could worry about home. "Where's the danger, Donald?"

"Gawrsh, Sora, there's no Heartless or Nobodies around." Goofy chuckled behind him. "We were just waking you up so we could go explore that world down there."

Sora nodded slowly as he remembered the previous day they had spent in the Land of Dragons with Pin- Mulan! The day they had spent with Mulan! After they had finished there, they had taken the Gummi Ship to the next world, and parked in orbit, deciding to rest for a few hours before going back into danger.

He jumped off of the seat he had landed in when Donald woke him, dismissing his Keyblade as he did so. "Right! Let's go!"

After throwing the lever to make the hammocks they had slept in retract into the ship's storage compartments, they gathered at the portal in the back of the ship. Donald hit the crystal with his staff, teleporting them to the warp point on the world below. They appeared in the courtyard of an ominous, gloomy castle. There was no sun or moon, and the stars themselves were hard to see through the clouds cloaking the sky. There was not a living thing in sight, though outside of the courtyard and across a bridge there were some very dead trees.

"I vote we check out the inside first," Sora said, already moving to open the large doors leading inside the castle. Donald took the crystal and put it in his pocket so that the green warp point would vanish. It was never a good idea to leave a portal to their ship open in an unknown world.

Sora held the door open for Donald and Goofy, walking in after them. He gave the entrance hall a quick look over. Clean, but seemingly abandoned; scratched, torn walls; a tall ceiling with a few holes in it... "Hey, what is this place?"

"It's huge!" Donald gawked.

"And sorta gloomy, don't ya think?" Goofy added.

Sora nodded as he mused, "I wonder who lives here."

A ferocious animal sound shook the entire castle, and the three jumped into battle positions, scanning for the threat. Goofy was the first to relax. "Hey, does anybody else recognize that?"

Sora crossed his arms as he thought about it. He gave no visible reaction when the sound came again. Oh. "Hey! That's the Beast!"

"Maybe we should check up on him," Goofy suggested, almost nervously. It was a bit worrying that the Beast would sound so upset, especially if it was his castle they were all in. It could only mean something terrible was lurking

There was movement out of the corner of Sora's eye. As it skittered across the floor, Sora was able to make out the flat, yellow eyes of a Shadow Heartless. "Look!"

Donald's and Goofy's eyes followed where Sora was pointing, and they saw the Pureblood go into one of the rooms to the side of the entrance hall. It was the only one with an open door, and a dim light was coming from within.

"C'mon!" Donald yelled, leading the charge to the room. He peeked inside, Sora looking in from above him. "Where did it go?" They could not see any Heartless. The light was from the fireplace, and from a beautiful rose that was suspended in the air above the table in the corner of the room, a glass case covering it. Sora walked in after Donald and Goofy. He was only a few steps in when Donald yelled, "Found it!"

A Shadow came up in front of Sora, just as they had for Donald and Goofy. More continued appearing around them, and the three backed into a triangle with their backs to each other, Sora wielding the Kingdom Key, Donald his staff and Goofy his shield.

"They're all just Shadows," Sora pointed out to his cohorts. "We can take care of them easy!" That was what he thought for the first thirty minutes. Then he began to become more wary of the creatures.

His hopes rose when the last one was vanquished, only to be dashed when a half-dozen more came up before them. "Aw, c'mon, enough already!"

"Somebody help us!" Donald started yelling. Sora was about to tell him to be quiet, as it would only attract more Heartless, but the door was violently thrown open, and Sora feared the monsters had already arrived. Instead of a vicious Heartless on the other side, though, it was the Beast.

He prowled into the room, a numb look in his eyes as he swiped at the Heartless, obliterating them. No more appeared. They were likely too scared. Sora did a fist-pump at the victory, then held his hand up to Beast for a high-five. "Just in time!"

Beast did not return Sora's greeting. Sora lowered his arm as Beast stalked closer. Then, his once ally backhanded Sora to the floor.

His vision went white for several moments, then began to return to him as he sat up, squinting from the new headache he had received. Before he could ask why he had been so harshly greeted, Beast, cradling the glass holding the rose, left the room, not giving them a single word or glance.

"Gee, do you think he maybe forgot who we are?" Goofy asked as they all stood. Sora kept his eyes on the door where Beast had left them. Beast had never been the warmest of fellows, but his behavior was very peculiar.

"With this many Heartless around, something must be up." He concluded that must be the reason that Beast was not acting right.

"Why'd he have to do that?" Donald grumbled as he lead the way from the room, as if he wanted to have a word with the Beast. When Sora and Goofy made it out after him, Donald had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot in thought, looking up the grand staircase at the end of the entrance hall.

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"I just know I saw a lady at the top of those stairs..."

"Well, if the Beast is here in the castle, that lady musta been Belle, right?" Goofy asked. The thought of Belle being with a moody Beast did not settle well with Sora.

"Yeah, maybe so..." Sora's voice trailed off as he looked at the top of the stairs where Belle had supposedly been, trying to make a mental map of how large the area was based off of how big the castle had seemed from the outside. "Belle might know what's happened to the Beast, too."

"C'mon, let's go find her!" Goofy and Donald ran ahead of Sora to chase after Belle. Sora lagged behind, examining the entrance hall once more. The large scratches and tears on the walls... did the Beast make those?

lack danced at the corner of his eye, and Sora turned to the staircase in time to see a wall of flame rise between him and Donald and Goofy. "What! You guys...!"

He could not see through to the other end, but he could hear the sounds of battle. Was it some kind of fire Heartless? Why would it separate them? There had to be one on Sora's side of the flame, too. Yes, he could sense a presence behind him. Sora spun and lifted his Keyblade against an attack, catching the blade of another before it could catch his skull.

The attacker wore the Organization's coat, but unlike the members he had encountered in Hollow Bastion, this one was female. Blue eyes stared at him from under shoulder length auburn hair, seeming completely, utterly lost. "K-Kairi?!"

He was still from the shock, and she seemed to be stuck in an equal state. Finally, her eyes hardened and she growled as she jumped back. She leveled her Keyblade with his face and yelled, "Firaga!"

Sora dodge rolled from the attack on instinct. The sudden movement helped bring him to his senses enough that he could speak. "Kairi, what are you- why are you-?!"

"Stop talking!" She ran at him and swung. He lifted the Kingdom Key to block her unfamiliar Keyblade. She continued to attack, constantly muttering, "You should be dead, you have to be dead..."

"What are you saying?!" He pleaded with her to answer, but she did not seem to hear him. He finally swung back with his Keyblade, countering hard enough to knock her Keyblade away from him and throw her off balance. He reached out to grab her shoulder, but she jumped away, eyes going wide as if his hands were jaws ready to draw her blood. "Kairi, what's wrong?!"

She did not respond. It did not make any sense. He went ballistic. "Why are you here?! Why are you... and why..."

"Gravira!" she screamed. The spell knocked Sora off his feet, but he quickly adjusted to the change in gravity, grabbing Kairi's shoulder before she could impale him with her Keyblade. He swung around the weapon and brought his feet back to the ground. Within a moment of grabbing her shoulder, Kairi had collapsed to the ground and scurried away from him. She looked scared for her life. Scared of him. His throat went dry.

What had the Organization done to her?

"Kairi, why are you working with them?!" Why else would she be wearing their coat and attacking him? "You're not one of them!"

It had been more to himself, convincing himself that it she was not with the enemy, but her angered response destroyed any hope that she was not on their side. "Shut up!"

As she tightened her grip on the grey Keyblade and charged him again, Sora continued to yell at her to stop, to put the Keyblade away, to not be with _them._

It was not working. She was not listening. She was trying to kill him.

He had to end it before one of them got hurt, or worse.

"Magnet!" he yelled. Kairi yelped as the spell yanked her body toward him. He quickly grabbed her hand that was wrapped around her Keyblade, holding the weapon away from him. The other hand went around her back to grab her shoulders, forbidding her escape. He felt his entire body weaken at the way she squirmed and writhed when he touched her. He felt his head becoming light, and dots danced in his vision because he was not getting enough oxygen. "Kairi, you're not a Nobody! You don't belong with them!"

She interrupted before he could say anymore. "You don't know anything!" She headbutted Sora as his spell wore off. He stumbled back from surprise, accidentally dropping her. She hit the ground and cast, "Blizzaga!"

Sora brought the Kingdom Key up to absorb the attack, but it was much faster than he had expected and the spell wrapped around his hand. He seethed from the sudden freezing, but it went away almost as quickly when Kairi's Keyblade hilt collided with it. The ice shattered, his Keyblade went flying, and he yelled at the pain in his contorted, bloody hand.

"Kairi, please, stop! It's me, Sora!" he pleaded. She shot a firaga at him. Sora jumped at the wall and started running along it to avoid her successive magic attacks. She was not supposed to know magic.

She should not have been able to hurt him like that. She should not have been that powerful. She should not have _been there. _She should have been on the islands, waiting for him and Riku to come back. "This isn't you! Stop fighting me! Please!"

Sora saw his Keyblade on the ground, and quickly jumped off the wall. He landed beside it, reached for it with his left hand, but it slipped from under his fingers. He looked up as it arrived in Kairi's hand and vanished.

The girl before him knew magic. She could fight with a Keyblade. She was part of Organization XIII. She girl wanted to kill him. The girl before him was not Kairi at all.

He stumbled away from her, cradling his still bleeding hand to his chest. The pain in his heart was great enough that he almost forgot about how she had crushed his fighting hand. Her figure was blurred through the water in his eyes, but he could see her slowly advancing. He stumbled back.

"I have to kill him," she was saying. Her voice was cracking. Sora quickly wiped at his eyes, and before they were covered again, he thought he saw tears in hers. "He has to... because he can't... he doesn't understand about being a Nobody... he deserves..."

He hit a wall. He felt trapped. Physically, he could escape, no doubt, but he could never escape her, his best friend and his Light. He could never escape Kairi.

She looked ill. She looked tired and worn. She looked small and scared. Sora's good fist was clenched so hard he could feel blood leaking between his fingers. The Organization had done that to her.

"Kairi, please stop..." he pleaded, his voice and body shaking. "This isn't you. It can't be you. You can't be one of them! You can't be a Nobody! You're a Princess of Heart, you can't fall to darkness! It's _impossible_."

She drew back. "I'm a... what?"

She was listening. He felt himself grinning again at just the fact that she was listening. "You're a Princess of Heart, Kai!" He saw her flinch at the name. He kept going. "You can't possibly be a Nobody. You've lost your heart before, but you didn't fade away into darkness! You're not capable of fading to darkness." She should have known, but it seemed that each word he said was like a new dawn upon her.

Finally, her eyes narrowed again, and her face contorted in anger. "Shut up." She swung the Keyblade. He ducked out of its reach, and it lodged in the wall by his head. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

She grabbed her Keyblade, swinging harder than before. Sora had difficulty evading her fast attacks. She had never been that quick on Destiny Islands. He looked for more words to say, seeing the effect it had on her, but his entire being was focused on getting around her attacks.

She landed a kick to his stomach, and he hit the wall behind him, slumping down but catching himself before he could hit the floor. He held his left arm around across his stomach, his injured hand dangling limply. He was gasping to regain breath. He tried to rise. His eyes were focused on his bent knees, but he found he could not bring his body any higher. It was taking all of his strength to not fall.

He felt her presence above him, and saw the tip of her Keyblade aimed at his chest.

"Kairi..." He wheezed. Fresh, hot tears were burning his eyes. She wanted him dead. She hardly even seemed to know him. "I'm Sora... your best friend... don't you remember?"

"Remember?" She laughed mirthlessly. Her voice was shaking with hysterics. "I remember Hollow Bastion... and sunsets with Axel and Roxas... but you?" Her Keyblade left his vision. "I remember you're important. And that I care about you. And that we used to watch sunsets together... and I remember... I remember..." Her voice had been getting higher and higher, and it finally cracked. He looked up enough to see her small, shaking body. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her head shaking, as if she were trying to block out a bad dream. "I don't remember anything else before this bloody Organization! I just remember being a Nobody, and a rubbish one at that!"

A year had passed since they had last spoken, when he had promised to go back to her, when he had promised to take care of her.

He failed.

Worlds saved, lives won, but he had failed what had mattered the most to him.

He pushed the Keyblade from her hand and pulled her against him. Kairi struggled against him, but she had lost all strength and ability to effectively resist. She continued to struggle against him, as if he were burning her. The tears running down his cheeks and onto her shoulder were burning him. "You're not a Nobody. You're my best friend, my light, my Kairi. You're no one else. You're you."

A fist went against his chest. Sora grit his teeth, waiting to feel her Keyblade through him. "Why can't you just die?" she whispered. Her arms went around him, and she repeated those five words. Once, twice, thrice, her voice soon blurred in his mind and only the words remained. He could feel every tear from her eyes that hit his shoulder.

His knees gave out, and Sora hit the floor, pulling Kairi down with him. She landed in his lap and tried to struggle away, but he was not letting his Light go. He had once. He would never do it again. "What did they do to you?"

It was Organization XIII's fault, he knew. They had taken her from the islands, they had done _this _to her. They had taken Kairi and turned her into an almost unrecognizable form.

It was his fault, too, because he did not protect her, because he never bothered to make sure she was okay. He let them take her away and destroy her.

"What did they do to you?" he continued to whisper. He could only imagine what might have happened to her during her time with those _Nobodies_. He was angry, more than he could ever recall being. At them, at himself...

"This is real," she whispered. He was painfully aware of that.

He was painfully aware that the fact that Organization XIII had completely destroyed Kairi was very, very real.

And he would forever hate them for it.

* * *

**A/N Welcome to Eight Lights (formerly Memory Scars), the continuation of Missing Chains. If you have not read the first part, do not fret, you can go read that now, or I will give a summary at the end of this note. Even if you do not want to read the entirety of Missing Chains, I recommend at least reading the last chapter. It is the fight you just read, but from Kairi's perspective.**

**Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again soon. Have a lovely day!**

**Missing Chains Summary: Before Sora entered Castle Oblivion, Xemnas ordered Kairi be taken from Destiny Islands and have her memory erased by Naminé. She was then told she was a Nobody and had to join Organization XIII to get her heart back. Wielding Stormfall, given to her by Xemnas, she began to collect hearts for the Organization. With her surface memories locked away, she began to remember those she had lost of Hollow Bastion (Radiant Garden). When she became friends with Axel, Roxas, and Xion, Roxas's presence made her remember Sora, who she then assumed had died and become Roxas. Confused by her supposedly non-existent feelings for the boy Roxas once was, she began to avoid Roxas, and her lack of presence allowed events to carry out similar to as they had in canon, including Xion being erased from memory, and Roxas being caught by Riku and sent back to Sora. Kairi's confusion over Roxas and Sora overwhelmed her, and when Saïx saw she was losing control of herself, he had her thrown in the Organization's dungeon. Days later, Axel rescued her, saying they were going to get Roxas back, but the only way to do that was for her to use her keyblade to kill Roxas's other: Sora.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Just as quickly as she had come, Kairi was torn from his arms with a brief cry before being dragged into a dark portal, and all Sora had to go off of to find her was a head of bright red hair on top of the Organization's coat.

"Kairi!" he called out for her as he leapt to his feet, sudden desperation giving him the strength he had been lacking in the emotionally draining fight. Regardless, the portal faded as he ran through the last wisps of darkness, and again Kairi had been stolen from him.

By the time he realized he was staring at where the portal had been, Donald had already cured his broken hand and Goofy was shaking him. "Sora! Wake up, Sora!"

"I'm awake, Goofy…" he barely managed to whisper.

"What was that?" Donald asked. "We were attacked by someone from the Organization and they put up a wall so that we couldn't see you!"

"I was… attacked, too…"

"By another Organization member?"

"No! Or, maybe…" Sora found himself staring off again, slowly trying to process what had happened through the numb feeling that had settled over him from his great failings.

"Gawrsh, Sora, what happened in that fight? I haven't seen ya this out of it, not since, when, well… I've never seen ya like this!"

"…they got Kairi," he finally said. Another realization came to him at that moment. "And they could have gotten Riku too…"

"Are you sure they did, Sora? Maybe they were just messin' with-"

"It was her," Sora said firmly. "She was in their coat, and she was attacking me… she didn't know who I was… didn't seem to really know who she was either." The numbness was finally fading away, replaced by loathing for the Organization. "I have to find her! And Riku! And this Organization! We have to stop them!"

"Do you know where they are?" asked Donald, evidently concerned by the information and Sora's irate behavior. Sora slumped at the question. He still had no idea, no greater leads. The only thing he had really learned was that he had failed to protect Kairi, and that she was with _them_.

He sighed after a moment. "I guess… we just continue on… and try to find them… just like we were." With this, Sora started walking up the steps of the castle. "First thing, we need to find Belle…"

* * *

The Corridor of Darkness opened into another world, unidentifiable in the night, and Axel finally released Kairi's arm. She had been struggling to have him release her, and when he finally did she fell to the ground, gravel digging at her through her coat. Her eyes quickly snapped to him and her fists tightened, ready to summon her keyblade in defense as she struggled to process the events. Too fast, too fast, all had happened too fast. After having days alone in a dungeon to contemplate Roxas abandoning the Organization and the Organization turning on her, in a matter of minutes she and Axel had together declared to leave, to rescue Roxas, then he said to rescue Roxas she had to kill Sora, who she thought was dead already. She tried to kill him, she could not… the dead boy actually hugged her and was real…

Kairi stiffened when she saw Axel's frustrated demeanor, something he was very good at for a Nobody. His lips were moving. He was speaking. With effort she forced away the loud thoughts, which screamed questions of how Sora could have lived, and listened to Axel.

"Why didn't you kill him?!"

Kairi flinched at his harsh voice. "I couldn't…"

"Why not?!"

"He's Sora… I, I just, I just…" Her voice shook. The battle raged on inside of her, demanding she choose her friend from the clocktower, or the friend she had lost so long before.

She did choose, though, did she not? Even by not choosing, that meant she chose Sora.

"It's the only way to get Roxas back!"

"You'll have to find another way," Kairi said, the words tasting bitter in her mouth. "I can't kill him."

Flames danced around Axel's hands as he extended them to the heavens and let out a cry of frustration. "Why can't either of you ever just listen and do what needs to be done?!"

She had tried, she really had. But something had gotten in the way. She knew what, Sora had told her. But more than she wanted to believe Sora, she did not want everything she had thought she knew about herself to come crashing down around her more than it already was. The few remaining truths that she could hold to were crumbling, pulled from the foundation of her identity by the feeling of being near Sora, by the war in her that she should not have been able to have, by the way he so earnestly believed that she could not be like them. She had never thought she was a good Nobody either. "Do I have a heart?"

Silence for a moment too long. Daring to look up to his eyes, she saw that in his fading fury, he was remembering fear. As if what she had said were a threat. Kairi pushed herself to her feet, and though a wave of dizziness threatened to make her fall again, she forced an uneasy step towards him, a foreign courage unburying her rage. "Why did you lie to me?! You and the entire Organization! I… why was I even there?! Did Roxas know? Was this just the fun little joke for everyone else? See how long you can mess with Kairi's head?! Mess with Kairi's _heart?!_"

"Kairi, this isn't the time-!"

"It's never the time, Axel! After an entire year, it still isn't the time! You _lied_ to me for a year! What else were you lying to me about? Don't even bother trying to answer that, I'll figure it out on my own!" She had not meant to yell at him. To her memory, she never had. Even her eruptions at the other Organization members were few. She found it hard to regret her actions, however, for as tears entered her eyes she could only see his harshly grabbing her, and his lying to her for so long, and his pushing her, his supposed friend, aside in favor of retrieving another. "Just… go away! I'll figure it all out on my own if I have to! That's the only way I get anything done, anyway. I'm not helping you anymore, Axel! If this is what friendship is, then I don't want a part in it."

Her words left him stunned for the few seconds needed for her head start. She ran, unsure where she was going or even what world she was on. Axel recovered to pursue, but Kairi was already several feet ahead and was naturally faster than him. One, two corners turned and she ducked behind a large pipe, her dark coat courteously hiding her small form in the night's shadows. An incantation for a weak illusion silently left her lips. Axel ran right past her.

Kairi watched him run on, slightly amazed at how easy it was to escape and wondering why she had never tried running from the Organization. As long as she was not on the World That Never Was, escape would have been easy. Then again, she had never had reason to escape before. She had actually trusted them, a thought that sickened her.

When she was sure Axel was far passed, she carefully stood from behind the pipe, massaging her head with a hand. The process took several minutes, but her tired, weary mind finally comprehended what had happened. She had run from Axel, her only friend left, though she could hardly consider him a friend anymore. Guilt tore at her regardless, yet beyond it lay a small, brighter feeling – yes, a feeling. She did have a heart. Axel confirmed that for her. What the feeling was, she could not yet place, for along with the guilt were still the heavy emotions from her battle with Sora. He was alive. She had left him at Beast's Castle with an injured hand and without a keyblade. Would he manage? The duck and dog with him could help him, right? Or did Axel kill them? She wanted to return to him, but at the same time, the thought made her uneasy. After all, every moment with him she would still be faced with the choice to recover Roxas instead. She could not remember much of Sora anyway. Not to mention she had just attacked him. He did not seem to be mad about her attacking him when he hugged her though…

At the thought of the hug, she found chills on her arms. The embrace had been comforting, if not traitorous and abominable. She struggled to force the thought, and any other bothersome ones, away from her mind. She could not stand there in the middle of the street. Axel would find her again. In his desperation he had somehow missed her, but as his mind cleared – if it cleared, if he was having as much trouble as her he would be looking for an eternity and never find her – he would be able to track her.

Her loud thoughts and the fact that Axel could at any moment snatch her away again despite being "friends" left her with a racing pulse. By the time she made it to the end of the street, she had already summoned her keyblade and jumped countless times at any small sound she heard. She surrendered from further travel and looked to the nearest building. By appearance it was abandoned. She doubted anyone would live in a place where the windows were boarded up and the walls partly missing. Though she attempted to carefully climb in through part of the broken wall, the rotting material still broke at her simply scraping it and she tumbled into the room with it, coughing at the dust she disturbed before quickly forcing her lungs to calm for fear that Axel heard.

When she did not hear him near, she hid her mouth in her elbow to finish coughing, wishing she had a potion or something similar to assist.

When the worst of her coughing had ended, she scooted away from the hole and further down the wall, feeling her way as she went, and finally leaned against the wall when she was sure she would not be able to be seen from the hole, and that it was firm enough to not fall on her. The hiding place would be suitable until she could think of a plan. Hopefully she could last until morning, when she could figure out what world she was on.

Sleeping was not an option. Axel could appear at any moment and she would have to be ready to move, though her tired limbs informed her that would be difficult anyway. Despite her tire, she could not fathom sleeping anyway, considering her loud thoughts. A new one never came. For hours, it was the same battle between the same four. Sora was alive. Sora had to be killed to get Roxas back. Everyone had betrayed her. Her time with the Organization had been founded on a lie. The loneliness and abandonment she had experienced in the dungeon felt like nothing to right then.

She was unsure what time of night she had arrived, and thus unsure how long she waited before the first light began to peak into the hole of the building. She forced herself to her feet and stretched her aching muscles before walking to the hole.

She knew the place, though not because the Organization had ever sent here there. A lump entered her throat. This was her former home, Radiant Garden.

Perhaps Axel had not intentionally brought her there. Perhaps it had been an accident. Regardless, this place held the most memories she had from before the Organization. Even if it now was nothing short of ruined.

Kairi stumbled over the wall and out of the hole, cautiously looking around for Axel. Nowhere in sight. If he really wanted her, though – and why would he not? She was the key to getting Roxas, the only thing he seemed to care about – he would still be in Radiant Garden somewhere looking for her. He knew she could not escape. At least, not yet. She would find a way. She did somehow when she was little, right?

She walked toward the center of the street, keeping a wary eye out as she tried to further grasp her surroundings. None were out and about, but she could see a small marketplace that showed that at least a few people still lived there. Turning in a full circle, she then saw the castle resting at the top of the city.

There were any number of useless gizmos in there, and a library that could easily detail ways to travel between worlds. Libraries were not something to be turned down in the first place, but if going there could help her, she was not to waste a moment.

Not wanting to expose herself by crossing the rooftops, Kairi made her way through the streets, checking around every corner for a possible enemy. If she could have remembered the path to the castle from so long ago, it would not have mattered, for the terrain had changed greatly since she was younger. Buildings had collapsed, parts of the castle and hills had been thrown around, leaving craters and boulders in many places. As she wandered, she tried to recall more, as much as she could, about the place. The memories were difficult to retrieve. Several places looked familiar, but the only thing she could specifically place a memory to was a broken ice cream cart indented into a wall. She and Ienzo had gotten ice cream there.

While at the Organization, her thoughts had become more and more consumed with Sora, meaning she had thought less and less about her young friend from Radiant Garden. He had grown up to become Zexion, she knew, though she did not get the chance to meet Zexion personally before he perished at Castle Oblivion. All she had left of him then were several books he had written and placed in the castle's library. The only one she had understood much of was one he wrote on illusionary magic, which she had found very hard to grasp and thus performed it scarcely. She was not sure if it even worked when she had used it on Axel earlier.

Even with her lack of knowledge of her whereabouts, she did eventually find an entrance to the castle. Though wrecked itself, it was evident it had been cleaned up much, and it was not too hard for her to find her way through to the library.

It was dark and covered in dust, but she could still recognize it as the library where she had spent countless hours with her grandmother, learning to read and studying the stories of the old times, when the world was one.

There had been a Keyblade War. Countless people with keyblades like hers had gone to battle to fight over the great light of Kingdom Hearts. She bit her lip at remembering this. They had fought for the light of Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds, yet Xemnas and the Organization sought it to gain hearts of their own. If Kingdom Hearts was as powerful as her grandmother had said she had no doubt it was powerful enough to give them hearts. However, had it not been lost to the darkness? How would collecting hearts make it reappear, or construct it, as she had thought they were doing?

They had been seeking hearts and Kingdom Hearts for so long they surely knew more about them than she did. But leaving it this way was not something she could do, especially with all the lies they had been apparently feeding her. She could find out about Kingdom Hearts herself. It also gave her something to do besides thinking about Sora and Roxas. Anything would be better than that.

She slowly walked through the library, glancing over all the books on the shelves in search of a potentially helpful volume. Anything about travel between worlds or hearts and Kingdom Hearts. She found no information on the first, but after a time she found on a shelf at eye level a book titled _The Keyblade War._

Whether the one her grandmother read to her or not, she did not know, but Kairi did not hesitate to seize it from the shelf and open it. The first page was a picture of a keyblade, similar to the one she had seen Sora and Roxas use, for two of them made the hilt and then the blade of a sword extended out from them. It was only then she realized that they had both used the same keyblade, the Kingdom Key. And she had taken it. She looked to her hand on the side of the book, the other one resting on the spine to support it. Could she summon their keyblade?

She closed the book and held her right hand out, closing her eyes and trying to focus on the blade within her. Summoning her own Stormfall had been a similar experience the first times she attempted it. However, she could not make the Kingdom Key materialize in her hand. It was still there, though; she could still sense it within. She again wondered if Sora would be okay without his keyblade, but quickly pushed the thought away. She could not think of him. She wanted to get out first and foremost. Thinking of him was too painful.

Nobody in the Organization could be trusted. Sora probably could not be trusted either. This revelation was sufficient to silence her worries for him. For the moment.

Knowing she would need to find a place to hide to read, she resolved to bring all the reading material she needed with her. Kairi looked back up to the shelf to see if there were any other books that could be useful near it. Another useful title she did not see, but she did notice something on the back of the shelf, visible now that she had taken the one down. What it was she could not identify until she pulled the books surrounding it off, and she saw that behind where they had been was a large keyhole.

She had never seen a key large enough for a hole this size. This keyhole could only be intended for one thing. Kairi summoned Stormfall, took a step back, and aimed the tip of her keyblade at the keyhole. She felt her energy flow through her arm and into the keyblade, to the tip where a light gathered, then on it traveled as a small beam into the keyhole. The keyhole vanished into light, and with a slight rumble and the disturbing of much dust, the bookshelf moved backwards until it was behind the others, then to the side into the wall.

The room beyond was dark, but the moment the bookshelf finished moving, it became lit by seven lanterns hanging from the ceiling. It was narrow and deep. The far wall and the one to the left were lined with bookshelves, seeming to have been abandoned longer than the library behind her had been. The wall to the right had two desks, one kept tidy so that the dust was its only fault, and the other kept in a clutter of books, parchment, and colorful maps. Between the desks was another shelf, filled with bottles and jewelry and other items Kairi did not recognize but assumed to be of magical importance. On the far side of the desks was a door.

Brushing her foot along the ground, Kairi found the dirt was thick enough that the floor itself could not even be seen. After lifting her keyblade, she hesitantly cast an aero spell to stir the dust up, and with some direction she managed to collect it into a pile in one corner, though not without accidentally inhaling some and sending herself into a coughing fit.

The floor was a mosaic, and the image was of the same keyblade in the book she was holding. She walked in, still coughing as her lungs recovered from the dust attack. She scanned the titles on the shelves and was pleased to find that all had something to do with keyblades, hearts, Kingdom Hearts, magic, proverbs, and histories.

One of interest was _The Beginner's Keyblade Magic. _She took it off the shelf and held it in her arm with the other book. She had learned all magic on her own while at the Organization, and none specifically about the keyblade. Hopefully it had a way for keyblade wielders to traverse worlds.

After scanning the books, she went to the desks. Sitting foremost on the cluttered desk was a page written a quarter of the way and the pen still laying on it from when the person had stopped writing. It was a language she did not recognize. Next to it were two maps, one of Radiant Garden, the other of the castle and what she assumed were the secret passages within. She could see the hidden part of the library, and the path where the door at the end of it lead. There were at least three exits from the passage that she could see and could use to sneak around. All the knowledge she would ever need was within this room.

Well, not all that she would ever need. But all that would distract her from what she really wanted to know. Like what the Organization had not been telling her about Sora and Roxas, and about herself.

With two deep breaths she was able to suppress the rising emotions. Then she looked to the entrance, for a way to close it so that Axel could not follow her in if he found it. She could not replace the books, so the keyhole would still be visible, but as far as she knew only she and Sora could wield a keyblade, and she had taken his. Though if this room meant anything, there had at some other point been other keyblade wielders. They could return, she supposed, but considering the dusty state she found the room in that was unlikely.

A keyhole was on the wall by the entrance. Kairi summoned Stormfall into the hand not holding her books. She prepared to command Stormfall to seal the keyhole, but before she did, a man with brown hair and a scar running between his eyes walked in front of the entrance and curiously looked inside. He stiffened in surprise when he saw her. "Kairi?"

She had not considered being caught by anyone other than Axel. She jumped in alarm and aimed her keyblade at him. "Aero!"

The spell threw him back into the bookcase across the row. Before he could recover, Kairi aimed at the keyhole and sealed it. The bookcase came back from the wall and resumed its place in the library.

She did not have as much time to stay in there as she had expected. She did not know who that was, though he somehow knew her. It could have been he was from Radiant Garden as well and knew her from when she was younger, or it could have been something far less innocent. She did not wait to find out. She quickly dismissed her keyblade and picked up the map of the secret passages, then headed to the door. They could be waiting for her out of the library entrance. She had to find another exit and leave, especially before Axel potentially found out that she was stuck in there.

An empty feeling settled inside of her as she opened the door to the passage. She was on the run now, and could see no plausible end in which she could stop running. All she could hope to do was find the answers. She needed to learn how to get away from those pursuing her. Then she had to learn more about Kingdom Hearts, the Organization, and… and Sora.

**A/N To all of those recently joining, welcome! To any returning, thank you for sticking with me. I know it has been much too long since I said I would resume, but health issues that arose shortly after I made that update kept me from writing for many months. When I was able to write again, I wanted to have the entire story written before I began uploading so that if I had to stop writing again, I would not have to go on another hiatus. Now you can be expecting an update at least once a week!**

**In rewriting, the plan for this story changed greatly from my original thoughts, so while the first chapter is told around Sora, this story is still Kairi centered. Also, though this was originally going to be a trilogy, this will be the final installment. While Missing Chains stayed close to the canon events of 358/2 Days, this one differs greatly from its parallel time in canon.**

**This story is currently (6/10/16) called Memory Scars, but I am soon going to change it to Eight Lights. I suddenly realize that sounds very OCish… there are no original characters in this story, unless you want to count the destiny trio's mentioned family members.**

**Thanks for reading! Have a splendid life!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The map showed a secret passage that let out near an entrance in a different area of the castle. From there was a path that would lead her back down to the city. However, when she had gone so far into the passage, she found an abrupt end at a wall.

Shuffling the books in her arms to be able to hold the map better, Kairi's eyes frantically surveyed the parchment. According to the map, the wall should have been the beginning of a staircase that lead up to a study. Kairi pressed her ear against the wall and knocked softly against it. It was only a few inches thick. Assuming that someone had placed it up as a door, she gave it two sharp kicks. Dust fell and it moved slightly, but did not fall. She considered her vandalism for only a moment before deciding no one would care about a door in an unused passageway. Stepping back, she summoned Stormfall and cast magnera to pull the door towards her. It only shifted slightly, but another two brought it from where it was stuck and it crashed on the floor in front of her.

What lay beyond was not a staircase. A vast, open room with machinery lining the walls awaited her. Kairi cautiously wandered into it, seeing no one. She could see where the staircase was supposed to lead, now replaced with a catwalk that lead into another room. A smaller set of stairs lead into a door that Kairi imagined would take her up to the room above.

Kairi jumped as she heard something moving behind her. The floor was opening, and a ramp appeared that lead down to a spiral slope. Kairi stepped onto the ramp, peering into the darkness, but the slope disappeared out of sight before she could see the bottom.

She quickly looked around to see if anyone could see her going down. She saw no one, but heard footsteps in the hall in the direction she had been intending to head earlier. That way out was no longer an option. As she ran down into the darkness, she quietly prayed no one would see her and that this would also lead out. The door closed before anyone appeared on the catwalk.

Her pace slowed to a walk shortly after the door shut. Kairi twirled her keyblade in her free hand in case something decided to jump at her from the darkness. Nothing did, however, and after a trek that made her wonder if this lead to the underside of the world, she made it to the bottom of the slope. A door waiting at the bottom opened automatically at her presence.

A short hall was before her. Lining either side were cell doors, bound by chains. Barred windows allowed her to see that there was only darkness beyond them. A door stood at the end of the hall, one Kairi hoped to be an exit. She walked through the hall, occasionally peaking in a cell, but she could see nothing inside of them. They had long been abandoned.

The door at the end of the hall opened when she reached it, disappointing Kairi with a lack of an exit. However, Nobody sigils on the wall grabbed her attention, and she wandered into the room. A throne sat in the center, and on the other side a discarded suit of armor.

Stormfall in her hand reacted strongly when it came near the armor, humming and pulling her closer. Kairi followed its direction, and when the keyblade tapped the armor, light surrounded it. When the light faded, only two pieces remained. They were familiar to Kairi, though she could not place where.

She looked to Stormfall. "Anything else you need?" The keyblade did not respond. Looking back to the remaining armor, she noticed that the colors of it and of Stormfall were similar. They went together, and she could only guess her keyblade wanted her to take the armor pieces with her. Stormfall rarely reacted to their surroundings as if it were a person, and when it did, Kairi scarcely questioned its motives. She dismissed it, picked up the armor pieces, and put them in the pocket of her black coat before going back up the slope to find a different exit.

The ramp reappeared and the floor above opened as she made it to the top of the slope. She walked out, looking around to make sure no one was watching. The only person was in the room above, the man who had found her at the library, and he had not yet noticed her. Silently, she ran back to the hole she had made in the wall. The "door" had been a panel in the machination that consumed the entire room. She stepped through, used magnet spells to lift the door back into place and secure it as best she could so no one else could find the passage, then went back the way she came.

She checked the map as she walked. Another passage near the library would bring her near an exit. Since the man who had discovered her earlier was on the other side of the castle now, she would have to assume it was safe to leave through there. She followed the map through the turns and slopes, until she came to the wall at the end of the passage. She pushed on it, and cringed as the stone grated loudly against the floor as it moved to the side, the sound echoing throughout the chamber on the other side. Fortunately, no one was there that she could see. She stepped out and the door loudly closed again behind her.

On the other side she was standing in a suspended hallway in a circular room. Other similar platforms were along the wall of the room as she was, with an open space in the center that allowed her to see clearly across and above to the other levels. Lifts rose and fell between the platforms, but none going lower than the one she stood on, for only pitch darkness awaited.

There were only two doors that she could take from the hall she was in. She started for the one to take her to the entrance, but heard footsteps echoing from them into the room she was in. Not that way. She looked back to the other open doorway, but whoever was coming would try to take that exit and she did not know where it lead. No time to check the map. No time to try to open the slow and loud secret door.

Clutching her books tightly in one arm, she slid to the edge of the platform as silently as she could, ending there on her knees, then twisted so that she fell backwards with her legs staying on the platform to catch her. She summoned her keyblade in her free hand and stuck it into the platform from below, then swung her legs off of the platform. With an echoing whisper, she cast a magnet spell as she brought her legs up so that she was kneeling on the bottom of the platform. She dismissed her keyblade. If she had to pull it out of the platform while the one coming was in the room, they would surely hear it.

Moments later, they stopped on the platform above her. Kairi was grateful they could not hear her heartbeat and nervous breathing, for both too loudly echoed in her own ears, but she desperately willed them to move on as the magnet spell began to wear off. She was sure she could get back up if the person left before it ended, but if she were unable to move before then, she would fall. Everything in the room echoed too much to try casting another without alerting them.

Perhaps running out the other door would have been easier if the person was not even going out of it. She realized this true without doubt as a lift lowered to the platform she was under and the person got on it. She only saw the edge of the Organization's coat and knew it had to be Axel. He was still looking for her, and was far too close to finding her.

No matter how much she willed the lift to be faster, it was still too slow. She could see the bottom of it rising as her magnet spell wore off and she fell into the darkness.

* * *

The last wisps of darkness disappeared from in front of them as the Heartless faded away, successfully defeated as all others had been by Sora's keyblade, though now he was having to use Hidden Dragon since Kairi had taken the Kingdom Key from him. Being ever aware of the keyblade change was a painful reminder of the fight that had transpired only hours before.

"We did it," he mumbled as he dismissed his keyblade. Even with the victory over the Heartless, failure still hung over him.

His mumbling had been heard. "So you think."

Sora turned to face a hooded figure standing by the door. "Xaldin!" the Beast growled as he lurched towards him. Sora was rooted to the spot.

"Y-You… you're one of them! That took Kairi!"

He was about to lunge for the Organization member himself, but as the Beast neared him, Xaldin bid them, "Farewell," and vanished.

The heat of fury rushed through Sora's veins, and he resisted the impulse to attack the wisps of fading darkness where Xaldin had been anyway. He was one of them, that had taken Kairi, that had changed and hurt her. He also possibly knew where she had gone, and he had slipped away before Sora had been able to do anything.

"What does he want here?" the Beast asked in anger. Sora did not respond, only looked down to his hand. The hand she had broken, but that had also been holding her. She had seemed terrified of being in the same room as him. Xaldin knew why… the Organization knew why. If he wanted to find Kairi, he had to find them too.

What if they had gotten Riku too? And hurt him just as badly? He still was unsure if Riku was even alive or not, but if he were, would he be just as appalled by him as Kairi was? Did Organization XIII take both of his best friends from him?

"Sora?" a gentle voice called to him. Sora looked up to see that Belle, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip had all joined them in the ballroom, and they along with Donald, Goofy, and Beast were staring at him.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

Sora put his hand by his side and clenched it into a fist as he forced a grin to his face. "Heh, yeah, of course!"

A unanimous frown told him they all saw right through it. Even he could not force happiness in this situation.

"…I'm worried for my friends… I still know nothing from Riku, just that he's hopefully out of the Realm of Darkness… and Kairi… she's working with people like Xaldin, or something, I don't know, but they did something to her, and now she's gone. I have no idea how to find her, other than keep looking for Organization XIII I guess."

There was silence, none sure how to comfort for a moment, until Beast quietly said, "I may have a way to find them."

Sora quickly looked up to him, heart racing with anticipation as he failed to remind himself to not get his hopes up without knowing Beast's idea. "How?"

"Follow me," Beast said, and lead the way from the ballroom. Not a word was spoken as they all followed him to his own chamber. They respectfully waited at the door as he crossed the room, to where the rose stood on the small table. From next to it he picked up a hand mirror, studied it for a moment, then carefully brought it over to Sora. "This will show you anything you want to see."

Hesitantly, Sora accepted the mirror from him. After a moment of studying it, and his own reflection within it, he said, "Show me Kairi."

Green light shown from the mirror, enough that Sora had to hold it away for a moment to not be blinded. The light faded but still rippled like electricity around the outer edge of the mirror. Instead of his reflection, Sora now saw Kairi, coughing as she pulled herself out of murky water and onto dry ground. She glanced above herself, as if afraid something were going to drop on her head at any moment. When nothing came, she reached into the water and pulled out two dripping books and carefully set them beside her, checking to make sure they were not hurt by the water. He saw a familiar lift lower into view behind her.

"Hollow Bastion," he said. "She's at the Hollow Bastion castle! Show me Riku now!"

The light again came around the mirror, and Sora turned his head away. When he looked at it again, he saw someone in the Organization coat with the hood up, standing over a dark city illuminated by neon lights.

"No… no that can't be right, I said Riku!" The mirror did not change. Sora swallowed hard. Was he a member of the Organization as well? "They… they couldn't have gotten them both…"

"I don't recognize that place," Donald said. Though disappointed at a lack of any potentially comforting words from his companion, it did snap Sora from his despair long enough to form the beginning of a plan.

"We'll go get Kairi first, then we'll focus on getting Riku back."

* * *

Sitting at the edge of the water, Kairi's had given all of her attention to the book on keyblade magic. There was a lit to go above ground, but with Axel prowling, she did not dare go to the surface without having a plan to leave it. She absorbed every word as fast as she could, hoping to drown out the thoughts and unpleasant emotions that came with them. Sora, Roxas, Axel, and the Organization fought for their place in her thoughts, but all lost as she poured over the pages before her. Never had she read something so quickly as then, but nervousness sprouted and grew as she realized she was quickly finishing the book – how long had it taken her? Minutes? Hours? A day? She fumbled with turning the pages, until finally, she was to the last one.

She could read the book on the Keyblade War, but staying there any longer ran the risk of being caught by Axel, or whoever the man was that had found her earlier, or whoever else may be in Radiant Garden. The book had at least taught her how to leave, if she could manage to put on the armor she had found and then turn her keyblade into a glider.

Then what? Where would she go? She could not go back to the Organization. Radiant Garden was not safe. There was no way to know what she would find if she went back to the world with the island she used to live on, wherever that was. In fact, she did not know where anything was. She had always traveled by Corridor of Darkness, never through the Lanes Between.

Anywhere was better than where Axel had brought her. She would hide out on the first world she could find if she had to. Or maybe the library had a map she could use. She needed to go there anyway to collect more books. Even if it was a few extra moments to possibly be caught by Axel, she would be running forever if she did nothing to find out about the keyblade and Kingdom Hearts (and if she ran out of reading material, she had to face her own thoughts, which she dreaded more than facing Axel). The beginner's magic book had shown her how to store items in the same place that her keyblade went to when she was not wielding it, so as far as she knew she could easily bring all the books she had interest in reading. She had already tried it with _The Keyblade War_, dismissing it and summoning it through thin air. She could quickly go grab several other books and perhaps find a map before anyone else could find her. Hopefully whoever had spotted her earlier had stopped caring for her.

She quickly read over the section of the book on keyblade armor and the glider again, memorizing every detail, since if she was discovered she would not have time to learn how to do it when she left. After gathering all she believed she needed to know, she quickly dismissed that book as well.

All that was left before she could leave was the armor. She looked to the two pieces beside her. She knew how to activate them once she had them on, but they were different than the ones used in the example in the book. For one, there were two pieces instead of one, and they did not seem to fit onto her shoulders.

Studying them for a time, she was able to vaguely see them positioned on the upper arms of a blue haired woman, the same woman in her first memories with Stormfall. Kairi took note of the memory, trying to store every detail of the stranger in case she could later get somewhere to draw her to keep the memory safe. Her old journal at The Castle That Never Was would be great, if she could ever retrieve it.

The sleeves of the Organization's coat were too large to attach the armor pieces. Kairi did not want to be representing them anyway, so with little hesitation she removed the coat and dismissed it as she had the books. She shivered. The world was much colder in just a tank top and shorts after wearing the thick coat no matter the conditions for a year. Kairi hugged herself for a moment, rubbing her arms in a vain attempt to warm herself, then quickly slipped the pieces onto her arms until she had tightened them in the right positions. In theory she would just have to strike it with her fist to activate the armor. First, the library.

The lift was across the water, and having no desire to deal with being soaked, she cast an aero spell and used that to launch herself to the lift, timing her jump so that it landed her on it when it was at its lowest point and about to rise again. She kept a fire spell ready to leak off her tongue and out of her hand in case she should encounter one of the world's residents or a Heartless. If killing Heartless with her keyblade helped the Organization, she would avoid using it against the Heartless.

No one was waiting along the outside of the castle where the lift brought her. She found the way back in, which brought her right by the library. Not a soul was in sight as she entered the chamber of the keyblade masters and set about collecting as many books as possible to teach her more about the keyblades, and to better help her understand her role with one. In remembering the absence of her keyblade, she also gathered books on magic for fighting the Heartless. After searching the crowded desk, she found a star chart with a few of the stars marked as worlds. The only world she recognized was Neverland, second star to the right. She could start there.

She still had yet to see anyone. The progression was too easy and as she ran back outside she was sure that at any moment Axel or someone of the world would jump out from nowhere and seize her.

"Kairi!"

Anyone but him. Anyone but him. Holding the door to outside the castle partway open, Kairi glanced over her shoulder and saw Sora at the other end of the room, though he was only there for a moment before running down the stairs towards her.

She darted out the small space in the door, praying it closed fast enough behind her as she struck the metal on her arm. Light surrounded her and she could feel the weight of the armor on her, thankfully not as heavy as she had anticipated. She could run almost as quickly as she could before.

She wanted to hug him and embrace that he was alive, she wanted the loneliness she had been feeling since the Organization threw her in the dungeon to go away. But every moment with him was a moment she was choosing him over Roxas, when she could not bring herself to choose either. His very presence only haunted her with the guilt of her betrayal.

As she ran towards the steps down from the castle, Kairi threw the keyblade ahead of her as she had read to summon her glider, but it only clattered onto the ground in front of her.

"Kairi, wait!" Sora called behind her as he ran out the door.

_Don't follow me, please._ She just needed to sort everything out, then she could talk to him… what all she was sorting out, she was unsure, but whatever she needed to for this mad universe to make sense. She summoned the keyblade back to her and threw it once more. It clattered again.

She was too close to the end of the path now. Praying to whoever was listening, Kairi threw her keyblade up into the air and over the edge.

Stormfall was caught in light and then flew back to her as a glider. Wasting not a second, she hopped onto it, grabbing onto it tightly so she did not fall as it wobbled under her weight before evening out again. She looked back to see Sora at the edge now, only a few feet away from her, seeming about to jump over to her. She struggled to swallow as she realized she did not know if she wanted him to or not. No. Of course she did not want him to.

He could not see her face through the armor, but she could see his. His blue eyes were wide and frantic, his mouth parted to speak but no words would come. A hand was extended forward and lifted slightly, wanting to reach for her.

So far, she had only thought about her own feelings toward the situation. She had been hurt and confused, and thus tried to avoid him, but he seemed to be just as hurt and confused by her own actions towards him. She had attacked him, and then just left and was running from him. If he could have this great an affect on her, surely she could for him too.

What had he been doing for the past year? What did he think she had been doing?

For the first time since she had seen him again, she was struck with an idea that before should have been obvious: sit down and talk with him. Surely he had some idea of what had really been happening that so many had been hiding from her, he had seemed to know much during their fight. She felt like a fool for not doing this in the first place.

Then again, to accept that he was there was to accept that Roxas was gone.

They were both technically right in front of her, and yet they felt worlds away. All of her friendships did. Axel had betrayed her, Roxas had hardly given her a glance in the last weeks, Sora had been gone so long...

The loneliness of that thought only made her want to talk to him more, to give herself something resembling a friendship again. But the guilt from knowing that meant accepting Roxas was gone, and thus choosing Sora over him, was too great. Kairi looked away from Sora and leaned forward on the glider, guiding it onward. She circled partway around the castle to be sure she could control it, then directed herself upward toward the sky.

Where was she going, again?

She struggled to recall her plan, the thoughts seeming an eternity away after only the few moments with Sora. The entire moment was hurting her head, and maybe her heart too.

She was in the Lanes Between now, and the stars flashed by her in long streaks as she sped through them, unsure where she was going so long as it was away from Radiant Garden. She could pick any star to go to, she knew, and the chances of him finding her there were slim. Which would be good for her, terrible for him.

She shook the thought away and focused on the stars. Second star to the right. That had been her plan. But that was from a Radiant Garden perspective, where would it be now?

Dread struck her in a cold wave, and she looked behind her to a see a funny red ship flying after her. Though she could not find a particular memory to verify the fact, she knew this was the way that Sora and the other two maneuvered between worlds. They were following her.

Her chest felt heavy and the ship became blurred in her vision. She was past the point of doubting the weird things feelings did to her, such as crying, and was more bothered by the fact that she could not remove the tears when in the armor.

Kairi turned forward again, intending to discover how to make her glider move faster, but instead she was forced to slow down and take a hard turn to avoid colliding with a massive white ship. She instead was struck by a smaller one that flew at her from the side. The hard jolt made her lose her grip on the glider as it flipped through space and she barely managed to grab onto the edge of it. The imbalance of weight only made it continue to flip. Kairi held onto the glider as best she could and shrieked in surprise as a laser passed by her leg. Two more quickly followed it as she tumbled around. She managed to pull herself onto the glider so that she was kneeling on it until it stopped spinning. Everything was still spinning for her, however, and she slowly rose to her feet, looking around for more attackers.

She did not see them soon enough, but instead of being run into by one, a plasma blast struck her glider and sent them both flying into another ship, the glider on top of Kairi. She felt the heat from the plasma through her armor, and even with her protection, the glider pressing her to the ship knocked the breath out of her before it ricocheted away into open space, leaving her behind floating a few feet from the ship they had run into. Though dizzy and uncertain what was happening, she kicked off the ship towards her glider, reaching for it, but instead flew straight into another plasma blast.

**A/N Characters, settings, and original story belong to Square Enix and Disney. Where the story differs from canon is my creation.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Ringing in her head was the first thing Kairi of which became aware. Loud ringing and an ache deep in her head, then all over her body. With a wince, she put a hand to her head, sat up, and opened her eyes.

"Do you need another cure spell?"

Her eyes snapped the rest of the way open and she looked beside her to where Sora was kneeling in the grass. He looked alarmed at her sudden action and held his hands up. "Please don't run!" he said, and as a hesitant after thought, "Or attack me."

With all she had, she fought the urge to do the first thing he had feared. With effort, she turned her focus to gain a grasp of her surroundings. They were on an island of some sort, though instead of being over water, they were floating in air. Several other floating islands could be seen in every direction, and on the opposite end of the one they were on sat a tall tower.

"Kairi?"

She jumped without meaning to and looked back to him. Her right hand shook and with horror she realized she could not summon her keyblade. She had lost it in space when she had been attacked.

"You flew right into Nobody transport," Sora told her, voice slow and cautious as his wide eyes studied her for any sudden movement. "They knocked you out… but we brought you here."

Kairi felt she would choke. She had been unconscious with Sora for who knew how long, he had brought her to a place she did not know, and he had likely taken her keyblade just as she had taken his. She was trapped, yet still he looked scared that at any moment she would disappear. The guilt from Radiant Garden returned. That expression was painful to see on him.

"Are you going to say something?" he asked after several moments of silence. Kairi opened her mouth but found she could not talk, could hardly breathe from her nervousness. Here he was, the boy that haunted the memories just out of reach, sitting in front of her. There was no attack, no fight to get Roxas back, no way to escape. There was just them.

He frowned when she did not respond. That made her feel worse. "Donald and Goofy are already inside… I didn't think you'd want to be swamped when you woke up so I made them leave us. Are you okay? Do you need a potion?"

She managed to shake her head, though after she did she realized one would be helpful. She was not going to say this to him though, not that she could anyway. She was paralyzed with uncertainty, unsure if she could move without the universe collapsing. This train of thought might have been strange months before, but as over the past days she had been abandoned by her friends, betrayed by the Organization, informed she actually did have a heart, and nearly forced to kill her somehow not dead friend, she could no longer risk anything being an impossibility.

"How are you alive?" She had not meant to ask that, but was there anything else to have said?

"How am I…?" Sora began to repeat, watching her face for some hint of context. The evident scrutinizing of her made Kairi uncomfortable, but she was not doing any better with him. She was watching his every feature, searching for answers to the questions she could not ask. He fell back off of his knees so that he was sitting crosslegged in front of her with his arms resting on his legs. "Why would I not be?"

Her words stuck in her throat. How did she explain a story when she did not even know most of it? "You lost your heart."

"But I'm still alive. I became a Heartless, but you brought me back."

She remembered that, but he had to have lost it again after that. How else could Roxas exist?

Questions she could not phrase hung in the front of her mind, words unable to form. Sora laced his fingers together and played with his thumbs, eyes drifting down to watch, before he regained resolve and focused on her again. "What do I need to know?"

"I don't know," she whispered. Kairi pulled her legs to her chest and hugged them tightly, staring at her knees. She had wanted to see him again for so long, but all she wanted then was to be anywhere else, away from the guilt.

"Can I ask questions then?" he asked. Her only reply was a shrug. Moments were spent collecting himself, deciding what to say and how best to say it, until finally he dared, "Are you working with the Organization?"

Kair's hand rubbed her bare arms, fingers brushing the armor near her shoulders. "I was."

"Not anymore?"

She shook her head, then nestled her chin onto her knees, her focus on Sora's hands that were awkwardly lacing and unlacing.

"Why not?"

"I left."

"Why did you leave?"

"You said yourself I don't belong with them."

Not much of an answer, but as good as one as he would get for the time. "Did they… did they tell you to come after me?"

"No."

"Then why did you?"

Her teeth grit together and she dug her fingernails into her legs to relieve some of the sudden tension that had washed over her every muscle. She had been doing so well to avoid thinking about these painful things, and now she had no choice. "I can't say right now."

When he did not respond for some time, she dared to look to his face, though nearly shrank away from the pain she saw there. Sora blinked rapidly and wiped the hurt off of his face, or so he hoped. "Why did the Organization want you? I thought they were just Nobodies."

She turned her head to look at the starry sky around them. Answering was easier when she did not have to look at him, when could more easily ignore the guilt that every question she answered was a moment where she chose him. _I'm sorry, Roxas. _"Nobodies and me, apparently. They probably just wanted my keyblade."

"How did you get a keyblade anyway?"

"I just did. I could summon it one day when on a mission."

"A mission?"

"They would send us out to do missions every day, mostly just fight Heartless."

"Why did they want to fight the Heartless?"

Her mouth became buried in her knees as she thought over the answer. To gain Kingdom Hearts, but much of what she had already said was Organization secrets, and this their greatest. Sora had nothing to do with the Organization anyway, why would he need to know?

He was her friend and just wanted to know what she had been doing. He was concerned and had every right to be, considering she had attacked him. Then again, Axel was also her friend, and she was doing everything to be away from him. She had tried to run away from Sora, too. And both he and Axel had hunted her.

But that was where the comparison ended. Axel had been shoving her around, to his own agenda. Sora had only been trying to help her, had been gentle, even asked permission before questioning her. Unless he was also lying, being manipulative just as Axel had been, as the entire Organization had been. She should have known from the moment she saw that her name did not have the trademark X. Her entire being there had been a lie. Her being a Nobody had been a lie, her friendship with Axel and possibly even Roxas had been a lie. Had their goal of achieving hearts also been a lie? A lie concocted to motivate her to help them achieve the ultimate power of Kingdom Hearts? And she had helped them, so foolishly had she helped them, through lie after lie after lie, nothing but a tool to be exploited.

Sora's hand touched hers and she instinctively swatted it away. Sora recoiled, fearing she was going to attack him. Instead she studied her hand, the blood on her fingernails, and the same liquid leaking out of the four crescent holes on her leg. The tension released with her blood only returned when she remembered Sora. He was her friend before the Organization, but she did not have enough memories to tell if he was deceptive as they were. What memories she did have of him she was fond of, but the same could be said of ones of the clocktower with Axel and Roxas. If Sora was deceptive as they were, her memories would be of no aid anyway.

"I'm sorry."

The crack in his voice made her look up before the words registered. Tears she did not realize had formed were in her eyes, blurring her vision, but attempting to wipe them on her sleeve only smeared them on her arm. At least she could see well enough to take in the tears in his own eyes, his fear and helplessness, and the anger behind it all. No doubt he could easily fake expressions like Axel could… but he seemed so sincere she could feel her will crumbling. "Why are you sorry?"

"I… this shouldn't have happened, and, have I hurt you?"

That question was not expected, and only worsened the guilt that was threatening to consume her. "Of course not."

He nodded, though unconvinced. Two fingers gestured to the holes she had made in her leg. "Can I heal that?"

"Sure."

More easily could she have healed it herself, but his evident desperation to do something to help her, even heal tiny cuts she could hardly feel, made her give him the chance. As the green light closed her skin, she was faced with the memory of before she had gotten her keyblade, and the Organization had repeatedly let her suffer injuries in hopes she would teach herself healing magic. The evidence of the worst attack was still on the back of her shoulder. Bitterness evolved into rage as she recalled other events, the things she had tried to push out of her mind. Their disregard for her safety, for the safety of civilians like Belle, for even the safety of the Dusks. Over and over again they had proved their lack of hearts to her, and over and over again she had forced herself not to think about it.

Then, there was Sora, wanting to help with the tiny wound she could have easily forgotten about.

"They want Kingdom Hearts." Her words were sudden enough to make him jump. "When a Heartless is killed with the keyblade, the heart trapped within is released, and goes to a moon that hangs over their castle. When enough of the hearts are gathered, they'll make Kingdom Heats. That's why they wanted my keyblade. They told me it was to get hearts of our own, but I'm starting to really doubt that."

He studied her, face unreadable other than his frantic eyes, before pushing himself to his feet and declaring, "We can't let them get it!"

"Kind of starting to realize that too," she mumbled as she stood herself. His height over her when she was sitting and he standing was unnerving. At least when both standing, he only had a few inches on her.

"I have to go up to tell the others," he said. Hesitantly, his hand extended to her, not quite trembling from his nervousness. "Are you… will you help us stop them?"

Stop the people she had been working and living with for an entire year, stop the ones she had sworn her allegiance too, stop the monster she had helped create. If only for that last reason, and her anger that she had been tricked into all of it, did she take his hand.

Sora gripped her hand as soon as it rested in his, as if scared she would try to run again. When she did not, he relaxed, though almost immediately after tensed again. "You're… you're done attacking me, right?"

She had no intention to attack him again, rather every intention not to, but as the words rose to her tongue, the guilt rose with it, and she remembered Roxas. Even if she was mad at the Organization, Roxas had always been a lost puppy. He had always seemed too oblivious to have known the things the Organization had kept from her. Perhaps they had kept them from him, too. He was the Nobody of her once best friend, after all, one who opposed them. She could be angry at Roxas like she was the rest of the Organization. Unable to give a verbal acknowledgement that she chose Sora over him (even if only because she could not choose at all), she could only nod to Sora.

That was good enough for him. He relaxed, his grip tightening on her hand for a moment more, and then he smiled. A pained smile, since he still did not know why she had done it in the first place, but a smile nonetheless. "Thank you." Again she could only nod.

Though tension hung between them, their hands were beginning to relax into each other's as they made their way up the steps and through the door. A dozen steps up the stairs, Sora broke the silence. "Can I ask a few more questions?"

"I guess."

Even with permission, Sora took several moments to gather his courage, his free hand rubbing against his leg nervously. Kairi fought down every instinct to comfort him, since his only comfort would be things she could not tell him about, and was relieved when he finally asked, "Do you even remember me?"

The relief passed into something between confusion and disappointment. "Sort of."

"What is sort of?"

Kairi's teeth locked around her bottom lip, biting it in effort to relieve her sudden nervousness. Why she was nervous, she could not tell, except perhaps from the fear of seeing the hurt on Sora again. "I only have a few memories from before Organization XIII. Most of Radiant Garden, the rest of you."

Despite what she had thought, no hurt reached his face, only a nod that lead her to believe he had already known the answer to the question, and also the answer to the next. "And you joined them out of the goodness of your heart?"

"No. I just… was suddenly there, couldn't remember a thing, and they said I was a Nobody and had to join them to get a heart back. I was doing it just as much for me as for them. Or so I thought." The nails of her free hand dug into her leg again when she said this. More powerful than the relief at being able to talk out her frustrations, and the joy that this boy was alive, a pressure was building in her veins as her body screamed that telling him anything placed her in danger, thoughts racing to remind her not to trust anyone. With this was the annoyance that she could not tell if her fear was rational, or if the Organization had warped her thinking.

His hand squeezed hers lightly, informing her just how tense she had become. She tried to relax her grip into his, and to stop stabbing her leg since he was looking at her hand in concern. Biting the inside of her cheek was her next attempt to release the pressure, though it was fruitless.

Sora wanted to ask more, but greater than that was his concern, and he was smart enough to at least realize the probing was setting her off. Maybe he could not gain more answers, but he could try to help her relax around him. "So did you travel? What's the coolest world you've been to?"

Her immediate answer would have been Beast's Castle, due to the spectacular library she had found on a few occasions while hunting Heartless, but in light of recent events she preferred not to discuss that world with him. "Olympus Coliseum."

"Why there?"

"The buildings were pretty?" She should have gone with the castle anyway.

Faint laughter reached her ears. How strange – and relieving – to hear him laugh. "Yeah I guess they were. I think I liked Halloween Town's better though."

"Why there?"

"Because it was bizarre. And different. Everything was so weird there it was cool. Not that I'd want to live there."

"You'd probably get blown up by pumpkins in your sleep," she mused.

"And then my remains would fit right in with the rest of the population," he declared, a triumphant grin on his face that only grew when he saw her smiling in amusement. She had almost laughed, but stifled it when she realized how strange it was – and how _nice_ it was – to be having this conversation with him. Oblivious to her thoughts, he continued, "If I were to live on any world other than Destiny Islands though, it'd be Twilight Town. It just gives off the feeling of home. It's really peaceful, everyone I've met there is pretty cool, and the sunset looks great."

"I have to agree to that…"

They reached the doors at the top of the tower. Kairi stopped a few feet short of them, forcing Sora to stop just before he opened the door. The humor from before vanished into worry as he turned his upper body to face her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine…"

"Want me to tell them about the Organization?"

Sora read her too well for having not seen her in so long. Kairi was unsure if she should be pleased or unnerved by this. "If you don't mind."

"Don't at all! Just tell me what we need to know about the Organization first?"

If she wanted to bring them down, she would have to at some point. That did not stop the sigh from escaping her lips and the sudden traitorous feeling in her gut. "It's stronghold if a world called The World That Never Was, and they have a second base in Castle Oblivion. It's lead by Xemnas, and the others in it are Xigbar, Xaldin, Saïx, Luxord, Demyx, A… and I guess that's it. Xemnas controls nothingness, Xigbar shoots arrowguns and has control over space, Xaldin utilizes lances and the wind, Saïx has a ridiculously huge claymore, Luxord controls time and fights with… cards and game stuff? I was just told to stay away. And Demyx… he's a nut that controls water with his sitar."

She paused, mulling over anything else they would want to know about. Roxas and Axel, surely, but they were not with the Organization anymore anyway. "And they travel through Corridors of Darkness? I guess that's it."

"Alright. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

When he opened the door, she released his hand, if only to not give anyone on the inside misconceptions of familiarity. He did not release hers until the door had shut behind them. Though Kairi had only met Donald and Goofy in a time she could not remember, and had never met the tall wizard seated at his desk, introductions were passed on due either to the urgency of the situation or Sora's forgetfulness. "Master Yen Sid, Kairi knows all about Organization XIII's plans and just told them to me!"

The master of the tower looked to Kairi. Unnerving as his gaze was, she met it, unwilling to let anyone else have the illusion of power over her. "Please explain, child."

Though he was looking at her, Sora began to explain as he had said he would. Kairi kept her gaze on Yen Sid until he turned his attention to Sora, freeing her. His words filtered through her ears, the precise phrasing not registering but instead their message. He told what she had explained about the Organization, fortunately without betraying anything personal about her. Trusting the others with even arbitrary details was far from her interest.

When Sora finished, Yen Sid wiped a look of alarm off of his face and again turned his attention to her. "How close are they to Kingdom Hearts, Kairi?"

"I'm not sure, I just know the two of us were collecting for about a year."

"Two of you?" Sora questioned.

Immediately, she bit her tongue. In determination to stare Yen Sid down, she had lost focus on where her thoughts met her words. She did not speak again until she was sure she had complete control over her tongue. "There was another keyblade wielder, but he's gone now, so we don't have to worry about him. It's just Sora and I now."

"Me?"

She broke her gaze from Yen Sid only to look to Sora. His alarm had grown. "You have a keyblade, don't you?"

While Sora silently dealt with the fact that each Heartless he had killed had aided the enemy, Yen Sid called their attention back to him. "Kairi, what was the other wielder's name?"

Either by his gaze, tone, or perhaps her own fear, Kairi's gut twisted. Did he know? "His name was Roxas."

If he knew, there was no reason for him to look so… disappointed. She selected the words, debated if she should ask, and was still debating with herself when she said, "Who did you think it was?"

Master Yen Sid's eyes slipped closed as his head bowed for him to recall the memories. "Eleven years ago, two young keyblade wielders, Terra and Ventus, each suffered terrible fates, though the details of them I was never sure of. They have been missing. I had long since given up hope on finding them. However, they had another friend who also disappeared, a young woman whose armor you bear."

Instinctively she crossed her arms, hands going over the pieces of armor. "I haven't met any of them." Except for perhaps the young woman when she was little, but he did not need to know that. "I just found the armor in Radiant Garden before coming here."

His eyes opened, and before they reached her, Kairi steeled herself for his gaze. "Have you any idea what it was doing there?"

"None. It was abandoned in an underground prison."

Silence pervaded the room, until finally he stated, "If any of you find any information on them, we would be indebted to receive it. For now, the Organization must be stopped, and their Kingdom Hearts destroyed. Do you know of any way to enter their stronghold?"

"If we can get inside a Corridor of Darkness, I can find a way there."

"Traversing through the corridors is very dangerous."

"It hasn't hurt me or the other Organization members. We wouldn't be in there for long. I think I know how to get to one, I just have to find someone and he can open it for us. And I have an idea of where he would be."

"Very well," he said after thought. "Normally, I would avoid taking such risks, but since we are unsure how much time we have, drastic measures must be taken. The four of you shall search for a way into their stronghold in whatever way you see best."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy nodded to his instructions. Kairi assumed him to be the Xemnas or Saïx of their group if they took orders from him so quickly. Apparently she now did too, though only because Sora did. Even then, she could not bring herself to nod.

"A few matters first. Kairi can go see the three fairies for more suitable clothing for your travels. Also, I must warn you all that we have seen the return of the dark fairy Maleficent."

"Maleficent?" Sora asked, only mildly concerned. "How'd she come back?"

"Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather's memories of her revived her shortly after you left this world. She left immediately after her revival and we are uncertain where she is right now or what she is planning to do now."

"We'll stop her too. We did once and we can do it again," Sora assured as Donald and Goofy saluted. Kairi remained indifferent

Yen Sid nodded. "I trust the task to your hands."

Sora saluted himself now. "We got it covered. The fairies are down here, right?" He gestured to the door at the side of the room. When Yen Sid nodded, Sora walked over, waving his hand for Kairi to follow him, then looked to Donald and Goofy over his shoulder. "We'll be right back."

The tall doors lead them into a short hall with another set of tall doors at the end of it. Once the first set of doors closed behind them, Kairi asked, "Who's Maleficent?"

"An old hag we had to fight when we were saving the worlds. And… yeah she was pretty bad and a pain to beat, but we did it once, and now we have you helping us so it'll be even easier," he insisted, still full of confidence. "You're… a great fighter, by the way."

His voice had a hint of sadness at the end. Remorseful. That she could fight now? That he was not the one to teach her? "Thank you. You are too."

"I'm better with the Kingdom Key, though. Mind if I have it back?"

Kairi looked to her hand, though she had to squint in the darkness to see it, then to Sora. He held his hand out to her. She hesitated, thinking he was expecting her to hand him the keyblade even if she could not summon it, but then his hand took hers and between their hands appeared Stormfall.

"Thank you," she said as she dismissed it. She tried summoning the Kingdom Key again, succeeding to do so since his hand was also around it. "Sorry about taking it… and the attack and everything. There were a lot of confusing things happening. Still are."

"Yeah… a lot of confusing things... We'll figure it all out soon, though."

"First to visit these fairies," she mumbled, glancing to the door. She did not want to keep wearing the cold tank top and shorts she had worn under her Organization coat, but what kind of clothes would fairies give her? "Wait for me out here?"

"If you want."

Silence hung between them as they realized they were still holding hands. She released his hand too quickly when she realized, but slowly pulled away, her fingers brushing his. "Don't go anywhere, okay?"

"Not going anywhere. Promise."

**A/N Then King Mickey walked in and said, "I know where Aqua is! I left her in hell!" Still bitter... I suppose it should be noted that the Disney characters do not play a large role in this story. It is focused on the original Kingdom Hearts cast.**

**Current update schedule is a chapter every Friday, and occasionally another on Saturday or Sunday. Huzzah! Thank you for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Which Organization member are we looking for?"

Kairi quickly looked up to Sora as he walked over to her from the front of the Gummi Ship. No Heartless or Nobodies were in sight, so he had surrendered control to Twilight Town to Donald and Goofy.

"He's not exactly a member of the Organization anymore," she admitted as he sat on the bench beside her. "Axel… he's the one I was at Beast's Castle with." His eyes implored the question she still would not answer, so she hastily continued. "We used to go to the Twilight Town clock tower a lot. I don't know if he's there, I just know he's running from the Organization. So if he were to go anywhere familiar, it'd be there. Then again he may be avoiding familiar places to avoid them… it's a place to start though."

Sora nodded, then placed his arms behind his head and leaned back on the bench with forced casualness. "So, what'd you go to the clock tower for?"

"We would eat ice cream there and watch the sunsets."

"You were… friends?"

Was she mistaking the hurt in his voice? "Yes, we were friends." He was doing a terrible job at hiding his dismay at her words. Reading deeper into his thoughts, she added, "It wasn't just us, Roxas went with us too."

Sora seemed slightly relieved by this. Kairi nearly rolled her eyes. Did he really think she was romantically involved with someone who did not have a heart? "Right, the other keyblade wielder of the Organization…" Sora mused aloud. "I still don't understand how they found another wielder of the keyblade."

"Heh, I don't either…" Her voice was awkward enough that Sora looked at her with concern. Her mind raced to find something to change the subject to. "Will you tell me about our island?"

To her surprise, he did not fight her changing the subject, though more questions rested at the front of his mind. "Well… it's actually multiple islands, the mainland surrounded by several smaller islands. Most of them are inhabited, but off the coast where you, me, and Riku lived there was a small island that nobody lived on. We would go there to play and hangout. Our parents – well mine and Riku's, and some of the other kids' there – had built huts and walls and treehouses and even a pirate ship when they were younger, so we had all of that to play on. There was also a secret cave that we went in sometimes, and we would draw on the walls in there. You and I drew a picture together in there, when we were… five I think? We drew each other."

Kairi nodded. "We were giving each other star shaped fruit… I remember that."

Sora started at her words. A hand tightly grabbed the back of the bench so he did not fall off of it. "Wh-What?"

"Am I remembering wrong?"

"No, I-" Sora's face turned red and Kairi frowned as she tried to figure out what had flustered him. She was about to ask when he shook his head. "Anyway, uh, the fruit is the paopu, and a paopu tree actually grew on the island! On its side, into a bench shape like thing, and we would watch sunsets there with Riku sometimes, as you already mentioned…" He awkwardly trailed off, and his eyes picked a spot on the floor as he became lost in thought.

"Sora?"

He jumped. "Um, right! And then there's the mainland! There was actually a volcano on it, though it's never erupted as far as records show. There was the city in a valley at the base of the volcano, in the center of the island, but most everyone lived on the outskirts of the island, surrounding that. Including us, though we had to go into the city for school. The three of us would walk together every day."

Still she quietly wondered what had flustered him, but he had been respectful to not press matters she did not want to answer, so she would do the same for him. "What was school like?"

Sora shrugged. "Like school? Sit in a classroom for hours each day trying not to fall asleep. Or at least that was me. You were actually a good student."

Considering her bookish tendencies it did not surprise her that she was good at it, though she found Sora's apparent disinterest amusing for a reason she could not decide. "How did you pass if you were always asleep?"

"You, mostly. We'd bring our homework to the play island and you'd give me the concise version." He grinned at her, apparently pleased with the memories of them doing this. "Riku preferred to try to look like Mr. Perfect, but I know he would sometimes come and ask you for help when he thought I wouldn't notice."

Kairi "hm"ed in amusement as she tried to imagine this. "Riku was our best friend, right? What was he like?"

"He was a year older than us, and had silver hair, and… a lot more muscular than me and admittedly a lot better than me at everything but keyblade wielding. He's competitive and a jerk and cares intensely for us even if he has no idea how to show it. And when we get him and take care of the Organization, we can all go back to Destiny Islands together!"

Was that the end goal when traveling with Sora? To get back their friend, get rid of the Organization, and go to Destiny Islands? Her life goals had changed so many times over those past few days she was having a hard time keeping up. She had not yet considered if she was ready for this future on Destiny Islands. The majority of her remembered life was with the Organization, spending every day fighting for her place by slaying the Heartless for them in a goal they shared for different reasons. A slower life on Destiny Islands, going to school and playing on an island in their free time, felt so foreign she was not sure she could desire it. Not having to fight for her life would be nice, she knew that, but how would she accept the slow life of an island child after fighting as an adult for so long?

At least she would have Sora with her.

And the ghost of Roxas.

"You mentioned your and Riku's parents?" Kairi asked quickly to distract herself. "What were they like? And did you have siblings?"

Sora had been lost in thought again, but at her call he jumped and focused on her. "Oh! Well, my parents were… parently? Honestly, I've not thought too hard about it. Not like I can see them for who knows how much longer."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

He smiled and shook his head. "It's fine! I don't mind doing it for a while if it can maybe help you remember." Was that why he was answering all her questions? She had thought it was just friendly conversation. Admittedly, she did want to remember who she was before the Organization, but if that was the only reason he was answering he was likely to be disappointed if she did not. "My mom was about my height when we left so I guess I'm taller than her now. She was an early bird and adored the outdoors, she even took us – you, me, Riku, my sister Naomi, and a few other island kids - up the volcano some weekends to go camping and swimming in hot springs."

He adjusted himself on the bench to be more comfortable while he fixed his gaze on an unseen point beyond the windows of the Gummi Ship. "My dad taught gym at the school, maybe he still does. He used to take me and Riku and eventually you out to the play island when we were too young to go ourselves, and he showed us every secret there. Except for the cave, since we weren't allowed to go in it. Which we obviously did anyway.

"Riku's parents were fun too. And great cooks. Seriously they made some of the best food I've ever had. Definitely not like the standard Gummi Ship never-expires stuff we've been eating…" Sora frowned at this thought, as if suddenly realizing how terrible whatever he had been eating was in comparison. Reaching under the bench, he pulled out a box, from which he produced what looked like a wrapped granola bar. After catching his toss, Kairi opened it and took a bite. She forced herself to swallow. It had the flavor and texture of cardboard. Sora snickered at her distaste, then continued. "Disastrous adventure runs in the family or something, he even had a great uncle who completely disappeared off the islands when he was a teen and was never found, though a few people claimed to see him walking around every few years, getting older and older. His parents were so scared something would happen to him that we were twelve and thirteen before they let us go to the play island alone, and even then it was only because we had you promising to keep us in line. Which didn't happen, sorry, not that they knew." Sora grinned in amusement to himself at this.

"Sounds like you two were a handful."

"But we had fun. That's what matters. And we'll have fun again when we're all together again." He flashed her a grin, and she hated to admit that living on the islands was beginning to sound almost appealing.

"What about me?"

At his look of confusion, Kairi clarified, "Who did I stay with? Obviously my parents weren't there. Did I live with you or Riku?"

Sora shook his head. "The mayor took you in right after you came to Destiny Islands. The way she tells it, she always loved kids but couldn't find a guy to keep pace with her ambitions – she was also a teacher and ran a sweet shop on top of being mayor – so being able to adopt you was a miracle to her."

Something twisted inside of her at these words. Something bittersweet. Most everyone seemed to not even see her as a person, yet somewhere out there, someone thought she was a miracle. And Kairi had not even a vague memory of her.

He was oblivious to her thoughts and continued talking. "Admittedly, that was the entire reason Riku and I started befriending you in the first place, because she was giving you free sweets and if we invited you places you'd give them to us. After a while the sweets were just a nice addition."

At this point he realized she was only half listening and stopped. She attempted to look more attentive, but she could not shake her distraction. In wondering what this nameless mayor truly thought of her, her mind had drifted to wondering how much Sora cared for her. Perhaps it was fear that he would eventually ignore her as Axel and Roxas had. However, her thoughts went down another side trail, to when he had been concerned when he thought she was romantically involved with Axel.

_That was only because he doesn't like Nobodies,_ she quickly told herself.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded too quickly.

"Fine! Just thinking, about the islands and all. We're going back when we finish this, right? Together?"

Sora smiled and nodded, spirit elevated ever higher. "Yep! We'll always go back together."

Kairi nodded. "Right. Always." Did this seal the fate then? She was agreeing to go back with him. That was just as good as a permanent goodbye to Roxas. Think of something else. She picked at the ends of the white shorts the fairies had given her. "But something happened and we left Destiny Islands?"

"Right! After you came to Destiny Islands and we got to know you, Riku got the idea that you were from another world and that we could go find it. One summer, a year or so ago I guess, he decided that we would build a raft and all sail out to sea to find it"

For the rest of the trip to Twilight Town, he told her of them building the raft and their world falling to darkness, of his searching for her and Riku, and of Riku falling to darkness. Of the villains he faced, the friends he made, and the challenges he overcame in his pursuit of her. She kept a close watch on his face as he talked, absorbing every word and emotion that came from him. There was no denying the excitement in him when he talked of particularly fun things he did, such as flying. If she dare let herself believe, he seemed almost joyed to be able to tell her about these things and share his adventures with her. Then with events such as Riku's becoming possessed by Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness, he became quieter as he again contemplated the dark happenings. He was fitting together a puzzle in his mind, a puzzle to lead him to whatever had happened to their lost friend, she decided.

His face turned faintly red as he spoke about sacrificing himself for her, which was enough to distract her for another moment with wondering how much he cared for her. Enough to kill himself for her, and now he seemed almost bashful about it as he told her. She hoped she was not reading too far into all of his actions. He seemed to fancy her. Whether she fancied him did not matter for the moment, though she fathomed she did. What did matter was that this meant he was less likely to leave her.

She was again engaged when he talked about her reviving him, a memory she had fortunately already regained. Then he defeated Ansem, closed the Door to Darkness, sent her home, and started out looking for Riku and King Mickey.

"And that's it," he said with a shrug. "The next thing I remember is waking up in a mansion in Twilight Town. Then we talked to Master Yen Sid, who told us about the Nobodies, went to Hollow Bastion, went to the Land of Dragons for a few days, then to Beast's Castle where you found us. That's everything… remember any of it now?"

Kairi shrugged weakly. He so eagerly wanted her to... "Still just bits and pieces, sorry."

"It's fine, it's not your fault. You'll remember eventually though." He sounded so sure, she almost wanted to believe it herself. "What do you remember, though? What kind of things have you done with the Organization all this time? Other than heart collection and sunsets, I mean."

She was unsure if she wanted to answer, but did not have to, for at that time Donald said, "We're here!"

Sora hopped to his feet, disappointment evident in his eyes for only a moment before he squashed it and offered for her hand. Kairi accepted it and stood, dismissing the cardboard food to nowhere. He held her hand and guided her to the back of the Gummi Ship where Donald and Goofy were already gathering. Unlike at the Mysterious Tower where they had landed inside the world, they were in orbit over it. At the back of the ship, they stood inside a green circle that had a crystal hovering in the air at its center. When they were all inside the circle, Donald tapped the crystal with his staff, and they vanished, reappearing in the Tram Common.

"Never teleported before?" Sora asked in amusement, and Kairi realized she was wearing a stupefied look on her face.

"No, it's just a little… dazing."

"Is that, 'no you have', or, 'no you haven't'?"

"No, I don't think I have."

Donald cleared his throat, and Sora and Kairi looked over to see him watching them with crossed arms.

"Sorry, what is it Donald?" Sora asked.

"What's the plan?" he asked bitterly, upset with Sora and Kairi's distraction.

Sora returned his attention to Kairi expectantly. She bit her lip. "I was going to go up to the clocktower in case he shows up, which he's more likely to do if he sees me there. I don't see him there now, but he could still be in this world. You guys can wait nearby." To Donald's scowl, she said, "I'll try to think of where we can find another Organization member in the meantime. You all can go ahead, so he doesn't see us walking together, and hide behind the fixture at the top of the tower. Then I'll go up in a couple minutes."

Sora's grip tightened on her hand. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I can take care of myself," she responded, more defensively than she intended. Sora recoiled at her harsh tone, his hand slipping out of hers. He gestured with his head to the clock tower. Donald and Goofy glanced between them, hesitant to move, but then started for the tower. Sora followed, but Kairi took his wrist before he could get too far. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to other people looking out for me yet. I still shouldn't have snapped like that though."

"It's fine," he murmured, in a tone that said he wanted it to be fine, but was not yet. "Axel… he kidnapped you, didn't he?"

She had willingly left the Organization with him, but he had forcibly taken her from Beast's Castle. Did that count? Kairi released his hand and let her arm fall to her side. "I guess so? It's all really iffy. Even if he finds me before I make it to the tower, though, you can see everything from up there and can come help."

He nodded. "Please be safe, and don't disappear, okay?"

"I'm not disappearing," she assured. With another nod, he started to talk away again. Kairi took a step after him before forcing herself to stop. "And if I haven't said it yet, thank you for getting me away from Nobody transport when I left Radiant Garden. I don't really want to think about what would have happened if they brought me back to the Organization. Thank you. I needed you."

These words finally returned his spirits enough for a small smile to grace his face. "Just don't go flying face first into their ships next time, okay?"

"Don't worry, I'll be much more cautious about space travel next time."

When he ran to catch up with Donald and Goofy, she forced tight fists to her side to help control the urge to run after him. Even if she was not in any danger, she did not like the thought of being alone again. She had grown attached to his presence too quickly for comfort.

When he disappeared from her sight, she paced in a circle to burn her restless energy, pulling at the white belled sleeves attached to the armor pieces on her arms, one of the gifts given to her by the fairies. They were like the sleeves the woman that had saved her so long ago wore, but there the similarities in their apparel ceased, for Kairi instead had a lilac vest open over a white camisole, pale blue shorts, and lilac sneakers.

She never saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive at the tower, but after several minutes of pacing assumed they had enough of a head start to make it if they had not already. She started up the street to the tower, waving her arms to be sure the unusual sleeves would not get in her way during a fight. They did not impede her movements and were neither long enough nor baggy enough to get caught on anything more than her Organization coat sleeves did, thankfully.

At the tram station, she paused and looked up to the clock tower, the ghosts of two boys sitting there in her memories. Now she was there to trick one of them, as he had tricked her. She was not entirely sure what she intended to do when Axel found her. Perhaps let him think he was winning and pull her into another corrido, then break free and let Sora in. Hardly a plan, but she was used to acting on instinct and need of the moment.

Then again, considering the messes she was in, a well thought plan may have suited better after all.

The top of the tower was the same as always, looking over a majestic sunset, unphased by the disappearance of its regular onlookers. She summoned the cardboard and continued eating it, the motion giving some sense of relevance to the general sense of wrong with the situation.

How long ago had it been since all three of them had been there? She hurt to think that they would never get a sunset on the tower together again. They would have enjoyed this sunset so much as well. Those were her best memories of her time with the Organization. The nights when they were able to forget about work and only enjoy each other's company. The nights before everything went weird and they started forgetting about her.

That assessment was not entirely fair. They had not just cut her out one day. She had started ignoring Roxas first, as she began to remember Sora and was mentally unable to separate them. Roxas would have likely stayed by her side if she had not started avoiding him. With a new pain, she realized she had chosen Sora long before. No matter how dear Roxas had been or ever would be to her, there would be no chance she could bring him back if it meant harming Sora.

"Sorry, Roxas…"

"Didn't you hear? Roxas isn't around anymore."

Kairi jumped and looked to the corner of the clocktower. "Demyx?!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy quickly dropped from their hiding places above, blocking the door from Demyx. He must have seen them go up there to hide, for he was in no way surprised. He simply yelled, "Ambush!" and ran towards Kairi. Before she could react, he had wrapped his arms around her and leapt off of the clocktower. Kairi had only a moment to process them falling, Sora calling out her name, his panicked looked, and then she and Demyx had fallen through a dark portal.

He released her as they collided with the ground, both tumbling. Kairi took only a moment before she was on her feet, summoning Stormfall. She looked back to the portal as it closed, hiding Sora and the clocktower from her view. She knew where she had to open it to put her right at the top with him again and pull him into it. She was about to run to this place when three water clones appeared in front of her.

"Not that way," Demyx said. "We have to RTC."

Kairi's fist clenched around Stormfall as she looked back to Demyx. "Why? I left the Organization, wasn't it obvious?"

"They want you back," he said. "Don't know why, but why complain? At least you're not getting turned into a Dusk."

"I'm not joining them again."

Demyx sighed and shook his head at her as he crossed his arms. "What's your plan then? To be on the run with that kid forever?"

"His name is Sora. And we're not just running around, we know exactly where we're going."

"And where is that?"

A part of her wanted to answer, but telling him would alert the Organization of their plans to free Kingdom Hearts. Even if Demyx had been the least terrible of all the members aside from Axel and Roxas… he was still one of them. She could not bring herself to hate him, however. Maybe they had not been friends, but they still had mornings in the Grey Area while she read and he sat beside her playing his sitar.

He took her silence as her not having an answer. "At the Organization we are at least working towards some achievable goal. And we're almost there, Kingdom Hearts is almost complete, and then we can have hearts again."

"You don't have to keep lying to me, I know I already have a heart and was never actually a Nobody."

"Oh." He did not sound surprised. "So that means I can't do much of anything to convince you to come back?"

Kairi shook her head.

He sighed and placed his face in a hand. "Why do all my missions with you suck?"

"You think every mission sucks."

"Fair enough," he said, lifting his head. "And since you're with Sora now, and he hates us, I assume that means you want to take down the Organization too?" When she gave no reply, he walked past her, waving an arm to dismiss the water clones. "In that case, tell them I went down valiantly or something."

"What are you talking about?"

He opened a portal into the tram common. "Missions with you, frankly, are too painful for me to even try, especially now that you have other weirdos helping. You're going to the World That Never Was, right? Just say the fight was epic and spare us both the bother. I'm getting Poptarts." With this, he disappeared through the portal, leaving Kairi behind in the corridor.

She stared after him a moment, then moved to where she knew a portal opened to the clock tower, finding on the other side Donald and Goofy trying to calm a panicking Sora.

"In here!" she beckoned. Sora jumped at her sudden near voice, and in a moment had his arms tightly wrapped around her.

Just as quickly as he had embraced her, he released her, pushing her back by her shoulders quickly before she could hug him back. "Sorry! I just, thought, they got you again…"

"It's okay, Demyx is a pushover. Come on, I can get us to their world." She took his hand from her shoulder. He gratefully held hers, more assured that she could not be taken again this way. Though she did not like to see him panicked, his care did give her a foreign warmth inside. Still holding his hand, she lead them through the corridors to the Organization.

**A/N ****Characters, settings, original story, and such belong to Disney and Square Enix. The plot is mine. Poptarts belong to Kellogg's. Thank you for reading!**

**Next chapter everything starts to die... and it really never stops.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The corridor closed behind them. Kairi knew how to use the Corridors of Darkness to get to the Grey Area inside the Organization's castle, but upon reaching that spot she had realized her access had been cut. While unable to go in the castle, however, she was still able to open a portal into the Dark City.

Only once had she gone down into the city from the castle, and not gotten far. Entering the city for the second time, she realized that the lights she had always seen from the castle were shop signs. No one, however, was in the city to occupy the shops, and as far as she knew no one ever had.

While Donald and Goofy walked ahead, she had stopped to contemplate this, and realized Sora had stopped in his own thoughts as well. "What are you thinking about?"

"How old are the people in the Organization?" he inquired, quietly. "About Demyx's age?"

"Not really. Most of them were older, the only ones his age were Saïx and Axel."

By the way he jumped, he did not realize he had spoken out loud until she answered. He quickly rubbed the back of his head, trying to appear casual. His face was turning faintly red. "Axel was an adult? Was, uh, Roxas?"

"No, he was about our age."

He walked forward again. "Oh."

Kairi followed, releasing his hand and crossing her arms "Oh? Why does it matter?"

"Why does what matter?" he asked a bit too quickly.

"I don't think people without hearts are capable of romantic feelings."

He jolted, but kept walking, not looking back to see her. "Why would that matter?"

"You seemed to care a great deal earlier when I said I went to the clock tower with Axel every day until I said Roxas went with us too."

He was stiff now. She quickened her step and leaned around him to see his face, trying to keep any smugness off her own. He chose a neon sign to focus on in the opposite direction of her. "You were talking about sunsets."

"You and I watched sunsets together."

"We saw them with Riku too!"

"So it's just a friend thing. Why were you worried?"

"I wasn't…" he muttered. It was not convincing, but she did not have time to press the (amusing) matter. Donald and Goofy had waited for them to catch up.

Donald was snickering as Goofy said, "Gawrsh, Sora, why's your face all red?"

Sora hurried past. "It's not! Come on, we need to infiltrate before they realize we're here!"

Kairi found herself smiling slightly as she followed, though she was quick to wipe it away when she saw Donald and Goofy glancing back to her. They were quick to tease Sora, and she did not dare give them fuel to tease her. She had to admit, though, that it felt good to poke fun at someone else again. She had lost her humor with the other Organization members months before.

She was lost in thought, trying to remember if Sora had ever hinted to fancying her in their time on the islands (she knew she had certainly hinted her own fancy to him), and did not notice Sora had stopped until she ran into his back.

"Sorry!" he said as he hurriedly stepped forward and reached a hand back to catch her. Then he pulled it away too quickly when he realized she was fine. Donald and Goofy snickered.

"Why'd you stop?"

A relieved look struck his face, then he gestured to the area in front of him. "I've seen this place before."

Kairi looked around him to see they had stopped in front of a familiar skyscraper. She remembered the place as the farthest she had ever gotten from the castle, the night Roxas had left the Organization. She had tried to pursue him, only to be stopped by a flood of memories when she passed by the skyscraper. Memories of Sora, who she had been convinced was dead. Now she was back again with him.

"Where have you seen it?" she asked. Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass hand mirror.

"Beast gave this to me. It's how I found you in Hollow Bastion, it shows you anything you ask for. I asked it to show me you, and Riku. It showed me you, but for Riku it just showed me someone wearing the Organization's coat standing on top of that building."

He handed her the mirror to see, but it only showed her reflection. Ask, he had said. "Can you show me Axel?"

Green light surrounded the mirror, bright enough to make her close her eyes. When she opened them again, green electricity danced around the mirror, which now revealed Axel in Twilight Town, facing off with Demyx, each with their weapons in hand though they seemed to be just talking instead of fighting.

"They found each other…?"

Sora glanced over her shoulder to see it. "Who's that?"

"Axel… they're probably arguing about him leaving."

Chills shot up her spine and Kairi lowered the mirror to look around. Emblem Heartless sprung up all around them, itching to attack. Sora summoned his keyblade, but then dismissed it again, remembering that they could not fight them. "We have to get up into the castle and away from these guys."

Kairi dismissed the mirror. "The entrance is that way."

Sora looked to Donald, who nodded and cast, "Thundaga!"

A bolt of thunder struck each Heartless, destroying or dazing them enough that the four were able to run past them without a further qualm. Kairi took Sora's hand again as they ran, keeping him close to her as she lead the way through the streets to the abyss over which the castle sat. She summoned Stormfall and aimed at the entrance overhead. Light shone from her keyblade and traveled in a line up to the entrance, unlocking the ramp which soon formed for them.

The presence of the Heartless drew nearer behind them. They fled up the ramp into the castle's basement, then slowed when they made it inside, scanning for the Organization.

Ten Dusks sprung up around them, then another ten in a circle around those. Kairi released Sora's hand so he could summon his keyblade. Glancing down the ramp, she saw the small horde of Emblem Heartless following up after them, Neoshadows springing up periodically to aid in the chase.

The Dusks whipped their legs at her. Kairi blocked them and leaped over their heads, placing herself against a wall so they could not be on all sides of her. Sora, Donald, and Goofy attacked the Dusks from where they were, holding them off easily enough. When the Heartless joined, however, they would be too quickly overpowered, especially if she and Sora tried not to fight them.

Before she could decide on a solution, the Dusks went for her again. Kairi lifted her keyblade to block. At her casting, a ring of fire spread out and away from her, burning all Dusks within several feet. Those closest to her were incinerated immediately. She forced the guilty feeling away and lifted her keyblade to block a Neoshadow, then had to kick another Dusk away.

Something struck her leg, taking all feeling and control of it from her, forcing her to fall. After raising a barrier to hold off the Heartless and Nobodies, her eyes swept the area until she saw a Sniper on the ceiling, far from her reach, aiming for her three companions now that it had immobilized her. Two more appeared to help. Only paralyzing, not killing, for her at least. They wanted her alive, a thought which brought her more fear than relief.

She only had time to cure herself, taking the paralysis off of her leg, before the barrier shattered. A Neoshadow struck her arm, claws drawing blood in two lines from her shoulder to her armor. Kairi grit her teeth and stabbed it with her keyblade. It faded only for two more to take its place.

The swarms of Heartless and Nobodies grew thicker. Kairi did her best to only get rid of the Nobodies and push away the Heartless, but as she grew tired and they grew greater in number, her discernment began to fade. Her remorse for hurting the lesser Nobodies became less as she heard the yells of pain from her new teammates, who were becoming lost amongst the swarms so that she had difficulty seeing them. She caught a glimpse of Donald, Goofy, but Sora was lost to her sights.

"Alright everyone surrenders right here and now or he gets one through the head."

Kairi froze, earning her a dizzying blow to the head from a Neoshadow. She never got the chance to counter for her eyes went to Sora, who was on the ground, dazed, with Xigbar's foot resting on his back to hold him down. His arrowgun was inches from Sora's head.

Donald and Goofy ceased their attacks, and with a wave from Xigbar the Heartless and Nobodies left them alone, vanishing into darkness and nothing. Xigbar gestured to the ground with the gun not trained on Sora. Praying for the best, Kairi dismissed her weapon and slowly knelt down, Donald and Goofy doing the same.

Any sense of danger for herself was gone, only concern for Sora in her mind, until two hands grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her back, one over the other, binding them together with something metal that ran the length of her arms, digging into them. For only a moment, fear for Sora leapt into unadulterated panic for herself.

They had her again, and she had no way to know what they would do to her after all of the trouble she had caused. She was the prisoner of the people who had hurt her and broken her, and that was when she was on their side.

By the time Sora had snapped out of his daze, Xigbar had already trapped his arms behind his back with similar binds that had been placed on Kairi and yanked him to his feet. She glanced over her shoulder to see Demyx was the one to trap her. He was refusing to look at her. "'Bout time you showed up," Xigbar quipped to him.

She looked over to Donald and Goofy to see that Luxord and Xaldin had trapped them the same way. They were all captured, all at the Organization's mercy. Only increasing her panic, Kairi realized she could not summon Stormfall. Whatever was holding her arms had ceased all of her magic.

Seeing her terror, Sora tried to approach her, but Xigbar held him firmly in place. "Xemnas doesn't need those two," he said, gesturing to Donald and Goofy with his head. "You can get rid of them."

"What?!" was the collective response from the four. Sora was panicking too now, his eyes wide as he looked to Donald and Goofy. Luxord and Xaldin pulled them into a Corridor of Darkness, Goofy unsure what to do and Donald squawking defiantly at his captors.

"You can't do this!" Sora yelled fruitlessly as he struggled to pull away from Xigbar. He kicked at Xigbar's legs, but Xigbar only stepped away and hit Sora's head with the arrowgun. He slumped immediately and Xigbar caught him over his arm.

"Nothing smart to say, Princess?" Xigbar asked Kairi, grinning in the way she had loathed since her earliest days. She did not respond, could only watch Sora's limp body hanging over Xigbar's arm, her terror leaving her paralyzed aside from her trembling. "Really hope you're not going to be this much trouble."

With this, Xigbar threw Sora over his shoulder and walked through a Corridor of Darkness that opened. Demyx walked after him, pulling Kairi along. She obliged. Her terror faded as a cloud of numbness settled over her. All she was aware of was Sora dangling over Xigbar's shoulder, blood staining his messy hair.

They came out on the other side on the Altar of Naught. Kairi had only been there once, when they had finally collected enough hearts that Kingdom Hearts first appeared in the sky. The moon was larger now, and felt closer. An energy was leaking from it, simultaneously chilling and warm. Kairi tried to tune it out, not wanting to be torn from her unfeeling state. She did not know why she could suddenly feel no emotion, but she did not want it back. Feeling was painful, painful to the point she was unsure why the Nobodies wanted hearts.

She had her mission. Keep Sora safe. That was all that could matter at that point.

Demyx lead Kairi to Xemnas, who stood facing Kingdom Hearts. "We are so happy you have come back to us, Kairi." Only his voice could be so void and yet so mocking. He could not feel happiness to see her.

The Superior did not turn to face her as he continued. "The time has come for you to fulfill the purpose for which we first brought you here. Our Kingdom Hearts is almost ready. As you have shown you now refuse to wield your keyblade for us, we shall acquire help from another, worthier wielder."

Finally, he turned to them, and waved a hand at Demyx and Xigbar. The latter unceremoniously dropped Sora on the ground and placed his arrowgun against his head. Demyx released the binds from Kairi's arms. She held her arms in front of her, pushed one of her sleeves back to see her skin. Her arms were faintly bruised from her wrists to her elbows where the metal had been clamped around them.

A part of her wanted to ask if she could heal Sora before doing whatever it was, but knew she would likely be denied. As long as he was vulnerable, she would be more willing to do what they wanted.

"Summon your armor and keyblade."

Faintly she wondered how he could have known about the armor she had found, but she had been with the Organization too long to doubt their resources. She had stolen it from a chamber covered in the sigil of the Nobodies, anyway, and who else would have taken it but her? Kairi lifted her fist and struck the pauldron. With a flash of light, the armor appeared around her. She summoned Stormfall into her hand.

Even with armor and her keyblade, she was helpless to do anything to save Sora.

"I would not suggest removing that armor. The Realm of Darkness is not kind to those with light such as yours." Xemnas held out his hand and opened another Corridor of Darkness. He lead the way in, and Kairi followed when Demyx lightly pushed against her back to guide her. She heard Xigbar dragging Sora after them.

The usual cold and sickening darkness that washed over her when she entered a Corridor of Darkness did not come. The armor was protecting her. But nothing was protecting Sora.

The other side held a world drenched in darkness. As far as she looked, Kairi could see no sign of true light or life. Colorless sand rested beneath their feet. To their right was an ocean, and on the horizon she could see a faint blue light, like the dusk of a dying sun. Rock formations were all around, over the water, over their heads, and forming mountains to their left. No stars were in the sky.

From his coat, Xemnas produced a yellow-orange glass charm. Star shaped, like a charm that Kairi could vaguely recall from her few memories with Sora.

"Bring us to her," Xemnas told the charm, before reaching to Kairi's keyblade and tying the charm to it. Upon being connected, both the keyblade and charm began to glow. The light faded, and Kairi felt a tug at her heart. The keyblade was guiding her down the beach. "Lead."

Kairi glanced back to Sora, and to the thin trail of blood leading from him to where the Corridor of Darkness had been. "I'm not moving until he's healed."

"Heal him, then."

Xemnas's willingness was a surprise, though Kairi decided after that it should not be. Even if healed, Sora was still easily under their control, and easy to kill if she refused to do what they wanted. Kairi approached Sora, lifted Stormfall – which tugged more fervently at her, as if upset with her for going the wrong way – and cast cure over him. Green light went to the cut on his head and sealed it, though much of the blood remained in his hair. She then cast a sleep spell. She did not want Xigbar injuring him again if he woke and started struggling.

She stood and walked back over to Xemnas. He expectantly watched her. She started following the guidance of Stormfall. The others followed, Demyx and Xigbar both placing their hoods up, and Xigbar removing Sora's restraints before throwing him over his shoulder again.

Not thinking about what she was leading them to was of little difficulty. Sora was okay as long as she lead them, and she was not contributing to their getting Kingdom Hearts. Nothing else mattered.

For what seemed hours to her they walked, and in that time Sora did not wake. Her spell should have worn off, he should have woken, and the cold claws of fear were just again beginning to grasp her when further along the coast she saw someone walking towards them, though the person froze as soon as she saw the group further down the beach.

Xemnas, who had been walking at Kairi's side, held out an arm in front of her. The group stopped.

Stormfall reacted more strongly, near eagerly as the woman continued towards them again. Xemnas reached over to Kairi's keyblade and removed the charm, concealing it in his fist. Kairi lowered the weapon to her side.

Blue hair, blue eyes, a kind face and a look of discernment. The only thing that did not match Kairi's faint memory of her were the lack of the pauldrons on her arms and a keyblade in her hand, both of which Kairi had instead.

_Aqua. Her name is Aqua._

She stopped ten feet away from them, confusedly looking between Kairi and Xemnas, once glancing back to Demyx, Xigbar, and Sora thrown over his shoulder before looking back to the two in front again. "Who are you?"

Without a word, Xemnas held out his hand and showed her the charm. Aqua's eyes widened at seeing it, then she looked up to Xemnas, squinting at his eyes as she tried to see past them to somewhere within. "Terra?"

Xemnas closed his hand around the charm again and placed it in his pocket. "Eleven years have passed, and there is much to explain. It is time for you to leave this realm." He held out an arm, and a Corridor of Darkness opened. He motioned for Aqua to go through. She hesitated, looking to the others again, her eyes landing on Kairi the longest.

"Who is he?" Aqua asked, nodding to Sora.

"He is a boy aiding us in our search, but the darkness has made him ill. He will be brought back now to be taken care of. It is not safe for him to remain here."

For several moments more, Aqua watched them, contemplating. Deciding this answer was good enough, or that complying was best to get the sick boy out of the dark lands, she walked through the corridor with Xemnas.

The moment it closed, Xigbar threw his hood down with his free arm. "Good thing for us we appeared so close to her. I didn't have much interest in wandering here for weeks. Now get rid of that keyblade and armor."

Kairi dismissed Stormfall, then struck her pauldron to remove the armor. The darkness clenched around her heart, unable to enter but chilling her entire body and twisting her insides until she was dizzy. The numbness evaporated, feeling returning in a rush that captured her every muscle in fear, blood rushing as she stumbled in Sora's direction .Demyx took her arms, and effortlessly binded them behind her back against her weak struggles. Xigbar watched all with a smirk in his eye as he opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Thanks for the gracious help, Princess."

**A/N Thanks to everyone for reading, and special thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed! Seeing that people enjoy reading this tremendously lifts my spirits!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

By the time the darkness that had been keeping Sora ill and asleep wore off, Kairi had spent several minutes banging her head on the dungeon wall in frustration with herself. She quickly stopped when she heard him stirring – she did not know how to explain to him that she had mindlessly gone along with everything the Organization had wanted her to do.

Though his waking started slow, in moments Sora snapped to full attention and sat up. "What-?!"

"We're okay," she said over his panic. "In their dungeon, but we're alive."

His eyes locked on her, then scanned the dungeon before settling on his feet. "They're gone, aren't they?" he asked after several moments of silence. "Donald and Goofy?"

She swallowed hard. There was a sadness on his face that should never be there. "There's still a chance they got away…"

"What chance? They couldn't even move, and there's no one left out there to help us… this is it."

She wanted to deny it, to say the right words to make the situation better, but optimism was his specialty, and if he had none, there was no reason to pretend they had a chance. There were no words to fix their situation, or his pain, and she could not remember a good way to lie about it. She sat against the dungeon wall, then pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.

After staring at his feet became too dull to quell his racing thoughts, Sora scooted back to sit by her. "What'd I miss? I don't remember anything after Donald and Goofy…"

"Xigbar – the one with the eye patch – knocked you out because you were struggling too much. Then they took us to Xemnas, their leader, and he took us to... I guess it was the Realm of Darkness. He did something with my keyblade, and my armor, and this charm he had, and they lead us to someone down there… I kind of remember her from when I was younger. The keyblade and armor used to belong to her. Her name was Aqua. I… I don't know why Xemnas wanted her, but apparently it's the reason he brought me to the Organization, other than heart collection." She hid her face in her knees, too embarrassed to tell Sora that she had willingly gone along with everything Xemnas wanted to make sure they did not hurt him. If she had been asked to do something clearly terrible, such as murder, she would have stopped, but even with what seemed harmless she could not know what damage she had done. "Um, so we got her, then they brought us back here, and here we are."

"They went through all of that trouble – making you a part of the Organization, and letting us in so easily - for you to bring her back?"

"I guess? That's what it sounded like."

"She must be someone important."

Kairi nodded. "She has to be… we need to get out of here and figure this out."

"The bars look easy enough to fit through."

"There's a barrier. It'll sap your energy and knock you out if you try to pass."

She felt his eyes intently on her. "Is that being said from experience?"

"I spent a few days in here. Not entirely sure how many."

"Why would they put you in here if you were on their side?"

Kairi kept her eyes on her knees. He was asking much more than why she spent a few days in a dungeon. She did not have much of a reason to not tell him what had happened with the Organization, except her own stubbornness. Keeping it a secret was control that she could not find anywhere else.

"Does it have to do with the scar on your shoulder?"

She laughed mirthlessly. He had found the disgusting mark of her earliest troubles in the Organization. If she had remembered, she would have asked the fairies to give her something to cover it. "When I first joined, before I could summon my keyblade, they kept sending me alone to places with dangerous Heartless. I guess they were trying to make me summon my keyblade, since I ultimately did it when a bunch of Neoshadows were about to kill me and Demyx… but, before that mission, I got trapped behind a fence with a Neoshadow and it gave me _that_ before they decided I wasn't going to get my keyblade that day and Xigbar chased it away. They wanted me to learn magic too, so it was hours before they tried healing it since they wanted me to do it myself, and since it took so long it didn't heal completely right and scarred."

Sora said nothing, waiting for her to continue. Kairi nibbled on her lip. She had already started, and they may be dead soon anyway. Secrets were useless to the dead, and there was no other reason to deprive him of inconsequential information he so desperately wanted. "After I summoned the keyblade, they put me on heart collection duty with Roxas, so we mostly fought Heartless every day. Shortly after I came, there was an incident at Castle Oblivion, the Organization's other castle, that killed off a bunch of people, so I never got to meet them. Zexion, Vexen, Lexaeus, Marluxia, Larxene, and No. XIV. Xemnas was never around, Saïx – he's got blue hair and an X scar over his eyes, he's hard to miss – only bossed us around and sent us on missions. Xaldin wasn't one for talking, Luxord only ever wanted to gamble and I was a protective hoarder so I avoided him. Xigbar was harmless I guess, aside from his teasing and mocking me… Demyx was an idiot but we got along fine. He'd tease me too but not as badly, I guess, as Xigbar. We had a tradition of sitting together every morning while I read whatever I fancied for the day and he played his sitar. Anyway, that's off topic, so, then there were Axel and Roxas who I was friends with, and we'd go up to the clocktower after our missions to eat ice cream and watch the sunset and just hang out."

She finally brought her gaze up to Sora to find that he was intently watching her, soaking in every word she said. She shrugged awkwardly under his attention. "And that was it. That was how most of my time with the Organization went."

"Most of it?"

Kairi nodded and looked to her knees again. Saying these things was easier when she did not have to see every possible disappointment in his face. None of it seemed too bad to her, but having not lived it himself and only knowing the Organization as the enemy, he was bound to only see evil in everything she did with them. If she were not still attached to certain members, she would too. "I don't remember the exact day, but I started remembering you. It wasn't too bad at first, but got to the point I was..." She trailed off, tasting the words in her mouth. They were strange even to her. "I was having flashbacks and hallucinations with memories of you and couldn't function around… certain other members… I ended up becoming distant from Axel and Roxas. Roxas got mad at the Organization and left. I tried to follow him out but Saïx and Xigbar got me and said I was out of control and so they put me in the dungeon… and yes they used violence but it wasn't the worst I've been through." She had meant that to put his mind at ease but cringed as she realized it probably did the opposite. "Anyway, after a few days there, not sure how many, Axel came and broke me out and said we were going to get Roxas and run away together."

Unsure how to explain what happened next, she paused, trying to find the words. She heard Sora shift and felt him lean closer. "Did you?"

"We… no, we didn't. Axel said I had to kill you to get Roxas back and clearly I couldn't do that."

She saw him jump out of the corner of her eye. Whether intentional or not in her rambling, even she was unsure which, she had finally told him. Perhaps the defeat had broken any guard on her tongue.

"Why would killing me bring him back…?"

The words still would not come. She had impressed herself with being able to say what she had so far on the subject. Kairi looked to Sora, but unable to look into his eyes, she dropped her gaze. Not knowing what else to do, she poked a finger against his chest.

"…what?"

She kept her eyes focused on that point, where his heart was. "He said that Roxas was inside you and that I needed to release your heart in order to free him."

Silence. Then, "That's crazy, why would I have a rogue Nobody inside of me?"

"Because… I don't know exactly how it happened, but… Roxas is your Nobody, Sora. I don't know if he was made when you gave up your heart to save me in Hollow Bastion, or if he was in that time period you can't remember after I went to Destiny Islands, but he was yours and could wield the keyblade like you could and he is why I kept remembering you and if Axel's right, he's with you right now."

No response. She dared to gaze up to his face after a moment. He was still watching her, speechless. He turned forward to think on her words, draping an arm over his propped up knee and staring at nothing. "I had a Nobody…?"

More words tried to break forth, to take advantage of what may have been her last chance to tell him these things, but watching the wonder, confusion, and hurt in his expression, Kairi's throat sealed.

As if trying to find Roxas, Sora looked down to his chest and placed a hand over his heart. "I wish I had met him."

Kairi looked down to her knees. Talking was so much easier to knees than people. "He sometimes talked about how he wished he could remember what he was like before he became a Nobody… I think he would have liked to meet you too."

Quiet settled between them for some time. Kairi left Sora to his thoughts, though she tried to not get lost in her own. At least she could take telling Sora about his Nobody off of her mind. But the guilt of having left Roxas was something she doubted would ever go away.

"That makes one more person we have to take down the Organization for," Sora finally concluded.

"How do you propose we do that?"

Sora sighed and shrugged. "No idea. Take down Kingdom Hearts and get rid of all the Nobodies? Any idea how to do that?"

Kairi shook her head. "None… except to get out of here and try to pick them off one at a time, but that will be almost impossible to do in this world where they can all teleport and convene so easily. We'll have to go somewhere else if we want to split them up."

"Know how to get off of this world?"

"Only if we can get in a Corridor of Darkness. Have to confront one of them for that."

"Do they have to lower the barrier to get in and out of here?"

"No, they can get in and out through a corridor."

"Right. So when they come in for us – and I'm assuming they will at some point since we're apparently still of worth to keep alive – we'll break out through the corridor. You can get us to Twilight Town, right? Then we can get to the Gummi Ship and go anywhere."

"Yeah, I can."

"Okay. That plan work with you?"

Kairi nodded. "Assuming they aren't listening to our conversation right now."

"Would they do that?"

"I don't know what all they would do." She hoped they would not, though, since she had spoken so openly and vulnerably. Though as far as she knew, they could have already known everything she said.

"Well let's hope not… we'll just have to be prepared for whatever then." He looked over to her again. "I guess we should rest up for when they do come? Since who knows when that will be. When was the last time you slept?"

"After the Nobody space battle?"

"Being knocked out doesn't count."

"Then, last time I was here in the dungeon, I guess… not entirely sure how much I slept in here though."

"Alright, you first then. I'll wake you up if something happens. You may wake up being dragged through a dark corridor though."

"What about you?"

"I'll sleep after you," he said simply. "Besides, I just slept."

"You said being knocked out doesn't count."

"Well, I still slept more recently than you, I hadn't even been awake for an hour when you found me at Beast's Castle. I'll take watch, it'll be fine, then you can while I sleep."

"Okay…" she said uncertainly. Even if her memory was not much, she could not recall him ever having such a focus on her health. Seeing she would need more convincing, Sora scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer until her head rested on his shoulder. The act surprised her, since he had so far only been brave enough to hold her hand. Not that she was complaining.

As she let her legs down from where she had held them tightly against her to keep her in a ball, Sora reached his far arm across their laps and took hers, curling their fingers together. "Comfy?"

She nodded with a "Mhm,"unsure what else to say about his actions or the new position.

"Good. Now go to sleep so I can take my turn."

"You can have yours now if you want, lazy bum."

"You need it more. How much sleep did you get with the Organization?"

"I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"So not that much."

She was unsure how to turn "I was kept awake because I kept having dreams of you that would wake me up crying" into a retort, so she let it drop. After a moment of silence to show that conversation had ended, she instead asked something else that had been on her mind since Xemnas had brought her into the Realm of Darkness. "Hey, Sora… did I ever give you a star shaped charm?"

He released her hand and reached into his pocket, producing the charm made from sea shells that she could vaguely recall giving to him. "Yep! This one. You made it when we were making our raft on Destiny Islands, because the sailors used to make them to bring good luck for a safe journey home. Then after we brought you to Traverse Town, you gave this to me for when I fought Ansem."

He rested his hand between them, the charm in his palm. The face crudely drawn onto it smiled up at them. Sora's face, she realized after a moment. She had drawn his face on a lucky charm and then given it to him. Younger her had no sense of subtlety.

"Do you want it back?"

Kairi shook her head. "No, you can keep it. You're not home yet. You can give it back to me when we go to Destiny Islands."

He smiled and pocketed the charm again. "Thanks. Oh, wait!" He reached up to his neck and pulled at the chain there. Kairi lifted her head to not be in the way of whatever he was doing, and saw a grin plastered on his face from whatever idea he had just gotten.

Sora removed the crown necklace and held it up. "This is my lucky charm! Sort of. Close enough. I haven't taken it off since I was seven." He ceremoniously draped it over her head to hang around her neck. "Until now. Now we both have something we have to get back to Destiny Islands for. I have to give you your charm, and you have to give me that necklace. Alsopleasedon'tloseitmymomgaveittome."

The rushed sentence earned a smile of amusement from her before she lifted the crown to hold it in her sight. She searched all memories of him that she could recall, and in each he was wearing the necklace. In spite of their situation, she found herself smiling. "Thank you, Sora."

Sora nodded, then put his hand to the side of her head and made her lay on his shoulder again. His hand ungracefully smothered her face, blocking her sight. "Now go to sleep before I take your offer to sleep first."

Grinning, she let her eyes close and dropped the necklace, the weight around her neck and the boy whose hand found hers again bringing a foreign but nice feeling. She did not have a word for what she it was, but she knew it was opposite the loneliness she had for so long felt. Sora was there, they were going to get out, and they were going to fix everything.

The thought left her in such peace that in the last moments before sleep claimed her, she did not question the tears rolling off of his cheeks onto her head.

* * *

Terra was in there. Somewhere very deep in there, but he was still in there, she could sense him. Yet whoever was in front of her was not entirely Terra. She could not tell what other heart she may be following, but it was not Terra's.

However, it did not have any darkness. Did that mean he had gotten rid of Master Xehanort?

It did not have any light either. As if he had gotten rid of everything.

He lead her up to a tower looking up at a heartshaped moon above their heads. Even if the color of the moon was different, it was too close to one she had seen before. Aqua took a small step back from him. "What's happened? How long have I been gone?"

"Eleven years have passed, if I recall correctly."

Had it truly been that long? In ways it seemed longer, in others it seemed shorter. She had lost track of time while wandering in the darkness. She was not yet ready to trust whoever this was, though. Even if no longer in the Realm of Darkness, she could tell she had not arrived in the Realm of Light yet. She had almost forgotten how light had felt, until she had seen her armor, and felt the heart of the one who wore it. Could someone of such pure light be working with someone of dark intentions?

"What is that?" she asked, gesturing up to the moon. He looked up to it, then to her.

"The prize for which my companions and I have so long fought. Kingdom Hearts."

That was definitely not good, and after all they had been through, her Terra would have known that. "Why are you fighting for Kingdom Hearts?"

"Do you not trust me, Aqua?" he asked. Her silence was her answer. "I did expect that you would not. You will understand more, when Kingdom Hearts is finally complete and within our grasp. Until then, perhaps you would do better with your friends in the dungeon."

Before she could decide what friends he could mean, three white-robed creatures appeared around him, facing her. Aqua summoned Master Keeper.

Transparent magical cubes appeared in the air and advanced on her. Aqua tried to banish them with a fire spell, but the spell went through the cubes without harming them, then was absorbed by one of the robed beings. Though seeing her preferred magic was harmless was disappointing, she was not yet at total loss. She struck the cubes with Master Keeper, but instead of destroying them, her keyblade merely reflected off of them.

More of the robed beings appeared, and with them came more cubes that formed a wall that she would not be able to run around nor jump over. The wall advanced on her. Aqua moved back, keeping the blocks just past arms length, until she came to the edge of the tower they were standing on. The wall continued coming for her. She looked to the man that she had followed there, but he was watching the moon and paying her no mind. She tightened her hold on Master Keeper from frustration that she had not in a long time felt.

The wall drew dangerously closer. Any kind of plan would have to wait. Before it could reach her, Aqua flipped back off the edge of the tower.

A corridor opened on the tower and Xigbar walked out of it as the Sorcerers pursued Aqua. "Well that was useless if she is just going to commit suicide."

"She can find many ways to survive such a fall," stated Xemnas. "I did not expect her to side with us. My initial plan was not to bring her back until after we had finished Kingdom Hearts, but the rebellion from Sora and Kairi forced us to take action. Right now, she cannot leave this world and will be waiting for us once it has finished." Xemnas finally looked away from his creation and to Xigbar. "Send the Heartless after her. She will finish Kingdom Hearts for us."

Xigbar gave a one sided grin. "Gladly. By the way, the other two came, just like you said. They're gone right now but they'll be back for their friends."

Xemnas looked back up to Kingdom Hearts. "One can be too loyal to those they care about."

* * *

When Kairi had woken, Sora's crying had stopped, its only evidence the hair matted to her forehead from his tears. Before she had been able to question him on the matter, he had hurried to his turn to sleep. She was more than a little hurt that he had only made her fall asleep so that he could mourn without her knowing, and gone to sleep himself so she could not question it, but after how much hiding she had been doing from him, she could not blame him. Even if sad by Donald's and Goofy's deaths, she could not care to the extent he could. She hardly knew them, and they only joined the haze of recent disasters. She had not proven to be a very comforting person in recent days anyway. So, she let him sleep, his head on hers on his shoulder while she kept watch for a Corridor of Darkness.

She hated uselessly sitting there. After a time, she summoned the Beast's mirror into the hand not holding Sora's. With her arm tightly against his she was unable to hold the mirror up and had to look down to see it. "Show me Xemnas," she whispered.

The leader of Organization XIII was standing on the Altar of Naught, staring up at the moon of Kingdom Hearts. Nothing enlightening to be seen there. She was about to switch to another view when a Corridor of Darkness opened and Xigbar stepped out. "Hey, she's been at it for a couple hours now, is it ready yet?"

Xemnas nodded. "Gather everyone. It is time for Kingdom Hearts to show us its power."

Kairi stiffened. They could not have finished Kingdom Hearts, not when their gatherers of hearts were locked up.

Fresh dread filled her as she whispered, "Show me Aqua."

The image changed to the Dark City. Aqua, with a keyblade in her hand that Kairi had never seen, was fighting off countless Heartless, slaying them without hesitance even if she seemed to be trying to run away from the hordes. She had finished what Kairi and Roxas had started.

Xigbar was going to be gathering everyone. She and Sora had to find a way out to stop them, somehow. Not like they could escape without someone coming for them.

She was debating waking him when she felt the familiar darkness nearby. She dismissed the mirror and got to her feet, pulling Sora up with her. He jumped in surprise as he was startled from his slumber, but before he could get his bearings Kairi was running to the Corridor of Darkness—

-and ran straight into a small blonde girl.

The three tumbled onto the floor of the corridor, Kairi forced to release Sora as they all landed partly sprawled on each other. Sora was the first to stand, assuming they were under attack from his quick wake up call and summoning his keyblade. When no obvious enemy was seen, he dismissed it again. Kairi pushed herself to her feet as Sora helped the other girl stand.

"Sorry," Kairi said, unable to help herself from apologizing for trampling her. Even if she had no idea who she was. Not one of the Organization, as she wore a white dress instead of the black coat. Was that enough to count her as an ally? She was better than Xigbar, whom Kairi had expected.

"It's fine," the girl said breathlessly. Being run over had not been one of her goals for the day. To Sora she said, "Thank you," before moving down the corridor. "We have to go, quickly."

"Who are you?" Kairi asked. "And where are we going?"

"To Master Aqua. I'm Naminé." She stopped walking and looked back to Sora. "Your friends, Donald and Goofy, they're safe. We got them out."

"They're okay?!" Sora asked, eagerly running towards her as if that would bring the answer quicker.

Naminé nodded with a soft smile. "They are waiting in Twilight Town."

Kairi was going to ask who other than Naminé was the "we" that got them out, but a portal opened and a claymore from it struck the ground between Naminé and Sora. Sora and Kairi summoned their keyblades, but another claymore struck Kairi's back, throwing her into Naminé and through the portal. It immediately closed after them, leaving Sora on the other side.

**A/N Sorry for the absence. Unfortunately, getting internet to my laptop is difficult right now, so until I move into my dorm next month, updates are going to be whenever I am able.**

**Anyway, hello again! Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. The next one was one of my favorites to write. See you all then!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Mid-week update! Yay! Characters, settings, original story, and whatnot belong to Square Enix and Disney. Where the story alters from canon is mine. Poptarts belong to Kellogg's.**

**Chapter 8**

Kairi tumbled over Naminé onto her side on the castle's cold white floor. Her back ached deeply from the claymore's strike, but she pushed herself to her feet and lifted her keyblade at the Berserkers that began to surround her and Naminé. "Sora?" She could not see him, nor the Corridor of Darkness. It had closed and left him inside of it. They had taken him too easily.

The Berserkers drew closer, raising their weapons, and Kairi yelled, "Reflect!" A round barrier formed around her and Naminé, blocking the first strikes from the six Nobodies and sending their claymores back over their heads, though the barrier shook from the force, threatening to shatter. Kairi desperately looked between the Berserkers to see where they had brought them.

The couches were her first alert that she was in the Grey Area, where most of her interactions with the Organization had taken place when in their numbers. Why would they bring her here?

She looked to Naminé, who to her surprise had summoned a golden keyblade adorned with flowers. By her stance and awkward grip on the hilt, however, she clearly was not accustomed to fighting with it.

The barrier broke. Kairi snatched Namine's hand and dove under the legs of one of the Berserkers to avoid the crashing claymores. Naminé cried out, Kairi at first thought from surprise, but as they tumbled out on the other side, she saw one of Naminé's heels was crushed and turning purple.

The Berserker they had rolled under turned, swinging his claymore across the ground. Kairi cast, "Aero!" to push Naminé out of the way before rolling to the side herself, stopping in a crouch out of the Berserker's reach.

Naminé was struggling to stand, keyblade in the ground for leverage. Kairi did not get to see if she made it before another Berserker dashed forward, viciously swinging its claymore. Kairi cartwheeled to the side to avoid the attack, then aimed Stormfall. "Ice!" Icicles shot from her keyblade and went through the Berserker's head, killing it and making it fade away.

Killing a Nobody had once been something difficult for her. She was unsure when this had changed, and further unsure if she approved of the change. At least it was keeping her alive for the moment.

She looked again for Naminé, but could not see her, only see four more Berserkers bearing down on her. She ducked under a swipe from one, deflected a swing from another though it sent her skidding back into a blow from yet another. She yelped as she collided with the windows, for a moment fearing they would break and she would fall to the city below, but they did not even crack. A greater force would be needed to break them, but Kairi was much easier to break. She grit her teeth against the pain in her side from the claymore, and put her free hand there as she reached out her keyblade to cast a spell at any Berserker that tried to near her.

She needed to cure herself, but Naminé needed it to. Her eyes scanned for her, and saw her crash into a wall before slumping against it, bloodied from the attacks. Only one Berserker had paid her any attention, and now that she was against a wall, it hit one of the Grey Area couches, hard enough to make it skid across the floor and into Naminé.

Kairi jumped high into the air, intending to land on the shoulder of the Berserker charging at her and from there jump over the others to Naminé, but the pain in her side greatened and her legs gave out as soon as her feet touched the Berserker. She tumbled behind it and onto her arms. They screamed with her side in rejection to any movement, but she managed to get her feet under her and sprint for the couch Naminé was pinned behind, darting between two of the Nobodies. She aimed her keyblade at the couch. "Magnera!" The couch pulled itself towards Kairi, tripping the Berserker that had sent it at Naminé. Kairi jumped over both as they skid behind her to the other Berserkers, and roughly landed a few feet from Naminé. She was unmoving, perhaps unconscious against the wall, pale and purple with blood staining her skin and once white dress.

A cure spell was on Kairi's lips, but as soon as she reached Naminé, one of the fragile girl's hands grabbed Kairi's hand around Stormfall to stop her from casting, and the other went over Kairi's heart.

Light surrounded them. Kairi's heart sped as energy, cold like ice yet alive like a flame, moved from her heart through every inch of her being, removing her pain and leaving her feeling as if she were floating. The energy concentrated into Stormfall, which hummed in her hand.

The light faded, but the feeling remained, the energy racing through her veins with each heartbeat. Naminé was gone. Kairi quickly checked over herself, but though the energy was invisible, her clothes had altered, now black and blue, and a tattoo of light blue flames danced up her legs from her sneakers. Her injuries had disappeared.

"N-Naminé?"

The Berserkers had gotten past the couch and were charging at her again, claymores poised. Kairi cartwheeled to the side, but when she landed on her feet, she continued to glide across the ground as if over smooth ice. She almost fell over in surprise but quickly gained her balance and managed to stay upright. The Berserkers turned to her, but with only leaning slightly she easily glided across the floor, out of their reach.

_"Your magic is stronger in this form."_

Kairi whirled around, looking for Naminé, but then realized the voice had been internal. "What?"

_"This is your Wisdom Form. The fairies told you your new clothes had special properties. Right now I am drawing out the magic in your keyblade to defeat them."_

If there were not Nobodies trying to kill her, Kairi would have taken the time to ask how Naminé knew about what the fairies had told her. Instead, she aimed her keyblade at the nearest Berserker and yelled, "Fire!" A fireball shot from her keyblade and threw the Nobody into the claymore of the one behind it before disappearing. Four still remained.

_"You can use more powerful magic than that."_

Two more Berserkers dashed at her. Kairi thought for something more powerful. "Magnet!"

The two charging were instantly stuck together and tripped over each other, losing their claymores. Kairi jumped over them as the other two began to rush her. She had more powerful spells, yes, but having been using magic for not even a year, she had never had much success with them. But if Naminé were right… Kairi lifted her keyblade above her head and yelled "Blizzaga!"

The temperature in the room instantly dropped, though Kairi did not feel the cold herself. Frost formed on the Berserkers, slowing them so that Kairi could easily move out of the way. The windows fogged as a wind began to move around the outer edge of the room. Snow and ice joined in it as it grew faster, strong enough to make the Berserkers skid across the floor, though it had little effect on Kairi herself. The snow, however, was near blinding, the wind too loud to hear anything else. Squinting through the ice flying around her, she was able to see all four Berserkers, frozen still from voluntary movement.

She lifted her keyblade again, yelling over the wind, "Firaga!"

Four balls of fire fell from above and each crashed into a Berserker. The area they were frozen in was consumed in flames, and a heat wave passed over the rest of the room, dispelling the rest of the blizzard. When all calmed, the Berserkers had disappeared.

Kairi inhaled and exhaled deeply as she turned in a circle, looking for more enemies to appear, eager to face them even if the two powerful spells left her short of breath. One would have done fine and using both was overkill, but, "That felt really good…" Not the destruction of the Nobodies, but using such strong magic. She could still feel it emanating from her, consuming the air in tiny crackles like static. The sensation was almost enough to leave her laughing into the empty room.

She was beginning to wonder if she would be able to use illusionary magic in this state when the light again consumed her.

* * *

"Kairi!" Sora called to her in alarm, but the portal had already closed. She could be anywhere and he was still stuck in the corridor with two tall Nobodies wielding claymores. "Where'd she go?!"

Instead of responding, the first Nobody charged, swinging its claymore. Sora rolled from the vicious swings, then slid between the two Nobodies to get behind them. He sprung to his feet and struck the back of one's head, killing it instantly.

Another portal opened nearby. It was not far from the one that had taken Kairi, so it would take him close to where she was, right? Sora dashed through it. The Nobody followed, matching his pace. Sora could hear its claymore's harsh strikes hitting the ground as it swung for him. As soon as Sora was through the portal and into the white castle of the Nobodies, he jumped up, flipping backwards, then twirled his keyblade downward and fell driving it into the Nobody, which faded underneath him as he landed.

No more arrived. Instead, sitting on a ledge above where Sora had appeared was Demyx, fumbling with a silver wrapper. The wrapper ripped at once and two Poptarts fell down in front of Sora. "Aw, man! Hey, would you mind passing those back up?"

"Where's Kairi?"

Demyx pulled another pack of Poptarts from his pocket before answering. His voice was awkward, as if he had distaste for being there, if a Nobody could. "Eh, I wish they'd stop sending me against you guys… supposed to do some taunting business, but that's Xigbar's forte. Something about separation from your girlfriend, nothingness, darkness, and we apparently work with Heartless now? Or one, what was his name… Ansem?"

"Ansem?!" No, they killed him. He could not be with Organization XIII. That was ridiculous.

"Yeah, he took Kairi's heart or something before, right? I didn't pay much attention to all that but he's up there with her again." Demyx gestured with his elbow up to a set of stairs that lead far above them and into a dark hall. He took a bite of Poptart before continuing. "Past the kitchen and bedrooms. Don't ask me anymore, Xemnas is only telling Xiggy and Saïx what's going on, so I don't have a clue. If anyone asks though, I was more cryptic than that."

Sora lifted his Kingdom Key. Demyx waved a hand at him quickly. "I'm not really into violence. Besides, you're wasting time. I don't know about this Ansem guy but Saïx doesn't care for traitors, he sent a lot more Berserkers after her than he did you."

It was a trap. It had to be. Everything thus far had been, and Demyx was giving the information to him too easily. He was an eccentric, though, especially by how Kairi continuously described him. And if Ansem really had somehow managed to return…

Trap or not, he could not risk losing her again.

"How do I know she's really there?"

"Search your heart? Or whatever you people do. Can't you feel each other's presences or something?"

If Demyx was as dim as he acted, he was confident she was up there and that Sora could actually find her this way. Tightening the Kingdom Key in his hand, Sora turned and ran up the stairs.

* * *

Kairi fell to her knees as soon as they disconnected, digging Stormfall into the floor to support her so she would not fall over entirely. Naminé covered her mouth with a hand and stepped back. She had not meant to drain Kairi's energy by disconnecting. Sora had used his Valor Form once in the Land of Dragons, and his energy had not been drained like that upon leaving it… then again, Sora had been disconnecting from Goofy, not his Nobody.

"I'm sorry!" she quickly apologized. She reached over to help Kairi up, then took a step back. Was she allowed to touch her?

She had been so confident when she had told Riku she could handle getting Sora and Kairi out herself while he tried to help Master Aqua. But as soon as she had seen them, or been run over by them, the confidence had fled from her and replaced itself with nervousness. She was mostly certain she could feel nervousness. DiZ had always insisted to her that she could not feel anything as a Nobody, but Riku had, save for the occasional moment of doubt, changed her mind on this.

She had hurt both of them. Sora had forgiven her, even if he could not remember being hurt or the forgiving. Kairi, however, had only been hurt and could not remember at all. Only after seeing her after the year had passed did Naminé realize just how much damage she had done by taking Kairi's memory. Even if Naminé had never interacted with Kairi in such a way, and only seen her through Sora's memories, she knew the old Kairi had been much warmer and more welcoming of people. If she stepped in the wrong direction with this Kairi, she would be quickly blocked out. No matter what Naminé did to win Kairi's favor, when she inevitably found out what Naminé had done, she would reject her. It was a secret she wished she could keep forever.

And if all went according to plan with defeating the Organization, and she would be able to run away to some far off world with Riku while Sora and Kairi went back to Destiny Islands, she could keep it forever.

"Are you okay?" Naminé asked after a time. Kairi nodded and slowly pushed herself to her feet, then dismissed her weapon.

"Yeah! Just tired from that," she said with a smile to Naminé, life in her eyes that had not been present when she had been rescued in the dungeon. "Thank you."

Naminé could only nod. She had perfected a sincere looking smile, no matter what her feelings, primarily her guilt, may encourage her to do otherwise.

"We need to find Sora," Kairi said. She glanced past Naminé and down the hall leading from the Grey Area.

Naminé followed her gaze, then looked back to Kairi. "I can open a Corridor of Darkness for us to go through, and see if he is still in there. Or we can look through the castle for him."

Kairi's eyes widened at something behind Naminé before she grabbed Naminé's shoulders and threw her to the ground. Another sound of impact overwhelmed the one of Naminé hitting the floor. She looked up to see Kairi on the ground several feet from where they had been standing, struggling to rise. Saïx walked over to her from where he had appeared behind Naminé, and as Kairi finally managed to sit up, he struck her again with his claymore. She was tossed into one of the windows, striking it hard enough that it began to crack. She slumped to the floor, blood remaining on the window.

Weakly she tried to rise, but a quick hit from Saïx's claymore had her down again. She stayed down. Still, Saïx repeatedly brought his claymore down onto her with strength superior to his Berserkers. Naminé flinched with each strike, each crack she heard from Kairi's body as a pool of blood formed underneath her.

She could not take on Saïx, she had not even been able to handle his minions. _"Riku! We need help!"_

Saïx managed to crush Kairi under his claymore four times more before a Corridor of Darkness opened beside Naminé and Riku rushed out, in the form of the Seeker of Darkness. Way to the Dawn was already in his hand. He did not miss a step but immediately charged at Saïx, who brought his claymore down on Kairi once more before he lifted it to block Riku's attack. He pushed the claymore at Riku, clashing against the keyblade and knocking him back several feet. Riku lifted Way to the Dawn to its ready position and ran at Saïx once more, dark fire curling in his other hand, but Saïx faded away in darkness.

Riku slowed and stopped where Saïx had been, scanning to see if anymore Nobodies would appear. Naminé did the same, but none were there.

Saïx had left easily, but Naminé assumed it to be because his damage was already done. Even with the many deaths at Castle Oblivion and the battle wounds Riku would come to the Twilight Town Mansion with, Naminé had never seen so much blood. What was not obscured in crimson was bruised, and too many ligaments were jutting in directions they were not meant to.

When no Organization member came, Riku lowered his weapon to his side, dismissed the dark fire from his fingers, and placed that hand in his pocket to find a potion, gaze turning to Kairi mangled at his feet. As he did, Sora ran in from the dark hall, replacing the Kingdom Key in his hand with Oathkeeper.

Before Riku could move, before Naminé could call out a warning, Sora had planted his keyblade in Riku's chest.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Riku stumbled back from Sora and into the window. Way to the Dawn vanished and a hand rose to his chest where blood and wisps of darkness leaked from the hole Sora had made. Sora kept Oathkeeper aimed at Riku, daring him to attack, but Riku was paralyzed.

A scream was stuck in Naminé's throat. Kairi was dying or dead, Sora had mistakenly thought Riku was Ansem and had been the one to kill her, and Riku was about to fade away before her eyes.

Seeing Riku was not attacking, Sora dismissed Oathkeeper and knelt by Kairi, trying to figure out how best to take her away from the battlefield without further hurting her. He had only just knelt when a Corridor of Darkness opened beside Riku and Xigbar stepped out, taking Riku's arm.

Someone grabbed Naminé from behind. Her scream finally broke free, but was muffled to near silence by the hand clamped over her mouth. She screamed harder, but still this went unheard to Sora, who had not yet seen her by the door. She struggled against her captor, but any member of the Organization was stronger than she was.

As soon as he saw Xigbar, Sora summoned his weapon and faced him, crouched on the floor ready to leap and attack the moment Xigbar showed sign of a threat to Kairi behind him. Xigbar laughed. "Thanks for your help. Now that you've unlocked Riku's heart for us we can finally begin."

Sora jumped, but quickly hardened his stance again. "What are you talking about?!"

"You'll see soon enough, Keyblade Master." With this, Xigbar pulled Riku through the Corridor of Darkness. Sora stared after them for only a moment before returning his attention to Kairi. As he attempted to gently pick her up, Naminé screamed once more for him, but it went unheard. She was dragged into a Corridor of Darkness.

Her struggling did not cease, yet it was to no avail. Even when she summoned her keyblade, her captor held her arm tight, forbidding her from moving it. They stepped out on the other side of the corridor at the Altar of Naught. Gathered there were Xemnas, Xaldin, Luxord, Demyx, and Xigbar as he stepped out of another corridor, still pulling Riku along. This left Saïx holding her. She ceased her struggles as a sickening feeling arose in her. He had been waiting to grab her from the moment he left Kairi.

"The time has come," Xemnas said to his gathered Organization. Xigbar released Riku and he fell onto his back. More darkness was leaking from his chest. The ill feeling grew worse, and Naminé began to struggle again even if she knew she could not get away.

To her surprise, Saïx released her. Perhaps it was an accident, but she did not give him time to grab her again. She rushed to Riku's side and knelt by him, Destiny's Embrace vanishing as she did. The darkness stretched from him across her skin, chilling all that it touched. She took his hand and squeezed it tightly, hoping that could somehow reassure him of her presence even if he did not seem aware of his surroundings.

How had they not predicted this? They had done so well with judging the Organization's movements, and had expertly moved around them to do so much! Rescue Donald and Goofy, retrieve Sora and Kairi from the dungeon, and Riku had been getting Master Aqua to Master Yen Sid's tower and had possibly even succeeded before Naminé had called him to her aid. But they could not have predicted this. She could not fathom why they would want Riku's heart open in the first place.

Xemnas was giving a speech, but Naminé heard not a word as she kept her focus on Riku. The darkness leaking from his chest thickened. He grunted in pain as the darkness swirled around him, hiding him from her view. When it had gone, he again had the appearance of a boy, his eyes covered with his blindfold.

Her fingers locked around the blindfold, and slowly she lifted it. His eyes were squeezed shut, his head moving back and forth as if he were fighting off a bad dream.

His eyes snapped open, fading from his blue-green into a golden yellow.

Something struck her chest, and Naminé cried out and placed a hand over where her heart would be as darkness seeped inside.

* * *

At first a far aching was all she could feel. The aching grew to pain and she realized she wanted to go back to wherever she had been where she had not been feeling anything. Then she realized that was asleep, and that left her vulnerable and defenseless against Saïx's assault.

She sat up, about to summon her keyblade, but the pain through her whole body increased exponentially. She froze halfway through sitting up, unable to make her body go further. She bit her tongue to avoid crying out and soon tasted blood.

"It's okay!" a familiar voice said. Though panicked itself, the voice was comforting by the owner she quickly identified. Kairi looked to Sora, who was sitting beside her, watching her carefully. His eyes were double their usual size and he was ready to jump away at any moment if she summoned her keyblade. "You're away now. The door's locked, no one can get in. Drink this."

Even the small weight on her arm was too much and Sora had to help her lift the potion to her lips to drink it. She was unsure what injuries she had but most of the pain faded as the warm, bitter liquid went down her throat. She was still shaking, taking in quick, short breaths as she lowered the empty glass and looked to Sora. Before she could figure out how to speak again, he opened his arms. Kairi shuffled closer and Sora wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. "You're safe, it's just us. Follow my breathing, okay?"

She did, imitating the exaggerated deep breaths she felt him taking, and within a few minutes she had gotten most of her shaking to stop and her heart to stop trying to beat its way out of her chest.

She had the urge to apologize, but not knowing how to word such an apology, she said, "I thought we didn't have any potions."

"I found it under the pillow."

Confusing words. Kairi pulled away and finally surveyed her surroundings more clearly. She was in one of the castle bedrooms – her room, she realized when seeing the two books, potions and elixirs, and jewelry sitting at the corner of the bed. They were usually hidden under her pillow. Looking to said pillow, she saw that it was splotched with blood, as was most of the bed.

"I did the best I could with cure spells, but they're not my strongest," he admitted. Kairi held back a flinch at what condition she may have been in before he had healed her. How she was alive was a mystery. If Saïx had succeeded, Sora would have been left alone, and Kairi knew too well how much suffering there was in loneliness. As much as she loathed to think about it, the chances were only growing that one of them would not make it home.

She had been quiet too long, and Sora was beginning to look as if he feared she was upset with him. She took his hand, hoping after the fact that the movement was not too fast. "Thank you for helping me." He smiled to her, she smiled back, but it faded with a sudden thought. "Did you get Naminé?"

Sora's eyes widened and he shook his head. Kairi realized he had forgotten about her, but she could not say she would have kept a person she had only exchanged a few sentences with in mind if Sora was taken. "I didn't see her… I guess the Organization got her."

Would the Organization keep her alive? As far as Kairi knew, they had no use for her. Then again, she could use a keyblade.

Sora rubbed a thumb over her hand and she realized she was squeezing his. "Sorry… What happened?"

His expression was full of too many emotions for Kairi to decide what exactly he was feeling. "I… I don't know. I ran down that hall to the room you were in, and when I walked in, it was just you and… and Ansem, the Heartless, and he was in an Organization coat and had a weapon and was standing over you and…" Sora trailed off and looked down, as if shamed. "I attacked him with my keyblade and got him instantly. But then one of the Organization – Xigbar? – showed up and said he was Riku… but there's no way he can be!"

Even if Sora said he did not believe it was Riku, the thought clearly still troubled him. "Well, I don't think Ansem attacked me, it was Saïx." This did not make Sora feel any better. Thinking quickly, Kairi summoned the magic mirror. "We can check this for Riku again? If it shows him to us it's obviously not him."

Sora looked to the mirror, then nodded. "Right." He took the mirror and adjusted himself so that he and Kairi were sitting next to each other, the mirror held between them. "Show me Riku." The light surrounded the mirror, and when it faded away, two memories painfully rose to the front of Kairi's mind. She had met that boy. He had tried to convince her to leave the Organization and join with him, to his failure. She had never considered the possibility that she had actually been his friend. He was no longer wearing the blindfold that he had in her memories. Instead, golden yellow eyes shone, partly obscured by his long silver hair.

Other members of the Organization could be seen standing around him, as well as the vague image of someone wrapped in thick darkness, and what looked like four glass hearts floating in the air around them, their own darkness swirling around them. On his other side was a familiar blonde. Naminé slowly looked to Kairi and Sora, as if being able to see through the mirror with her golden eyes.

Sora turned the mirror to the side to avoid Naminé's gaze. "Neither of their eyes are supposed to be that color. The Organization did something to them."

Kairi nodded in agreement. "Whatever's going on here is beyond us, I think. We have to go and get help." Even if necessary, the words were disgusting. Relying on others was a nightmare waiting to happen. "I didn't see Aqua through the mirror just now, maybe she saw how crazy they were and escaped. I did see her in the city while we were in the dungeon, and she could still be there. And if Naminé was right we can get Donald and Goofy."

"We may not have time to leave this world. Who knows what Organization XIII is doing, and what they are planning to do? If we leave me may be too late to stop them. Especially since they have Kingdom Hearts now. We can't just leave Riku and Naminé."

"So what do you think we should do?"

Sora looked down to the mirror as he thought. "Get out of this room for one… and I guess we'll have to figure it out from there. Not like we can get off this world anyway without at least one of them." He looked back to her window looking up at the great Kingdom Hearts. "Any way to open this thing? May be easier to get out through it instead of the door since they know we're in here."

"Not that I know of, and the windows in this castle are pretty much unbreakable. I only know how to turn it into a mirror." When Sora looked at her in confusion, she commanded, "Mirror," and it changed as she commanded.

"Well that's convenient," he said after a moment. He wrinkled his nose at his reflection and adjusted some of his spikes. "Makes this room make a little more sense. Doesn't feel like much of a bedroom."

"It has several random things hidden in it. Which reminds me." Kairi summoned Stormfall and cast two aero spells at the wall at the foot of her bed, tricking the wall into thinking she was knocking on it so that it opened to reveal the closet on the other side. In it hung several Organization coats. Kairi summoned her former coat and was about to throw it in to join the rest, but a crinkling sound stopped her. She pulled from the pocket a paper, wrinkled and burnt around the edges, with a scribbled poem on one side and a faded crayon image on the other.

"Is that me?" Sora asked as he looked at it. Kairi felt her face heat up and braced herself to defend her art. Unlike most people, however, Sora did not tell her what rubbish it looked like, but instead held out his hand and asked, "Can I see?"

Kairi handed it to him with a hesitant hand, then threw the Organization coat in the closet and busied herself with putting all of the jewelry, potions, and elixirs into her storage. She came to one necklace, however, that she had when she had joined the Organization. Aqua had placed a charm on it, she could vaguely recall, and Kairi had scarcely taken it off until she joined the Organization and did not want it to get hurt on her missions. The time of worrying for the necklace was over, and she quickly slid it over her head. It pinged against Sora's crown necklace as it rested around her neck.

"Nice poem," Sora said. She looked to see if he was teasing, but the soft smile on his face suggested sincerity.

"Thank you," she said, then returned her attention to the items before her. He liked the picture and poem so she was unsure why his looking at them made her so flustered. She focused on the two books that were left, her journal and Zexion's book on illusion magic. Those and the necklace were all that she held sentimental value to, and she was thankful the Organization had not found and taken them.

"What are those?" Sora asked as she dismissed them.

"A diary and a book of magic that I still have not managed to use. I will one day. May be a few years before I am good enough to use it though." The words tasted weird as she said them. As if she actually had confidence she would be alive in a few years.

_Alive and on Destiny Islands with Sora and Riku_, she reminded herself. _We're going to make it there._

"Mind if I keep this?" Sora asked, holding up the paper to get her attention.

"Go ahead. It was for you anyway. Well the poem was, I drew it for me." As soon as she said that she felt the need to explain, even if he showed no sign of minding. "I was remembering when I brought you back from being a Heartless, and I just wanted to make sure I didn't forget what you looked like again."

He just smiled and neatly folded the paper before pocketing it with the mirror. "So the window is out. Guess that means we have to go through the door. Have your keyblade ready when I unlock it in case someone's out there waiting for us."

Kairi hopped up from the bed, preparing to summon Stormfall, but froze when Sora's arms were suddenly around her shoulders. "Last hug!"

Her shock washed away and she returned the embrace, cheek against his and standing close enough that she could feel his heart already racing. Hers was not much better. They only dared hold each other for a few precious seconds before stepping away and summoning their keyblades. Since they did not know who or what could be waiting outside, Kairi also summoned her armor.

After a glance to Kairi to be sure she was ready, Sora aimed the Kingdom Key and unlocked the door. When no one came barging in, Kairi stepped forward, keyblade at the ready, and opened it.

All that awaited on the other side was a Dusk. Sora ran forward to kill it, but Kairi held out a hand to stop him. "It's harmless. It just has a thing for waiting outside my door."

Sora confusedly looked between Kairi and the Dusk, then settled on Kairi as it slithered away. "It could be going to report to the others."

"Is there anything to report?" she asked. "They already know we're in here. It feels like they can track every move we make in this castle."

"I wouldn't doubt they can. Where should we go from here?"

"Probably out into the city to find Master Aqua, since we're so outnumbered right now. We'll probably be intercepted on our way out though. Or worse happen." They had played right into the Organization's hands thus far, and Kairi despaired to think they were just doing the same then. But why else would the Organization just leave them be in that room? Something terrible was about to happen again. The Organization had planned this too well and they had been oblivious to it all until it was too late. Even with awareness of what was no doubt happening, she could not fathom how to proceed without doing exactly what they wanted.

Though her armor would be helpful, it made it difficult to hold Sora's hand, and for the moment she would rather have the comfort, and assurance they could not be separated so easily again. She could summon the armor back easily enough when trouble arose. She dismissed it and took Sora's free hand as they started through the castle, her other hand holding Stormfall. Every step made Kairi feel more and more like they were walking into the Organization's next trap set for them. He squeezed her hand, no doubt having the same thoughts.

"There should be a room with a balcony out this way," Kairi said, gesturing through the corridors. "Then I can summon my glider and we can use that to go over the city."

"How do you summon the glider?"

"It comes from my keyblade." Kairi summoned _The Beginner's Keyblade Magic_ and held it for him to see the cover before dismissing it. "Read it some time. When we're not in their castle."

"I needed something like that. Learning keyblade magic is much more difficult when no one around you knows how to use a keyblade."

"I know this pain well."

Kairi lead him into a large room, empty like much of the castle. The far wall was composed entirely of windows that looked over a sloping balcony.

"How do we get on the other side?"

"Guess the magic phrase to open it?"

Darkness was behind her. Kairi turned around to see the faint ripples of a barrier forming over the door, trapping her and Sora in the room.

A Corridor of Darkness appeared between them and the windows. From it stepped Riku and Naminé, the latter now wearing the Organization's coat. Both summoned keyblades as the portal vanished.

"I found the trap," Sora said, nervousness in his voice overpowering his attempted humor.

"Naminé can't fight… or couldn't a few minutes ago."

"Riku can definitely fight."

Kairi prayed Sora's fighting style was similar to Roxas's, since she had not had enough time with him to learn how to be a formidable duo. "Please don't die."

Before he could respond, Naminé lifted her keyblade and cast a thunder spell. Kairi dodged to one side and Sora to another. Naminé's magic reeked of darkness, even though Kairi had felt no darkness from her when they had entered Wisdom Form before. She was not using her own power anymore. As Sora charged at Riku, Kairi cartwheeled from three more lightning attacks from Naminé before casting, "Silence!"

Without being able to speak, Naminé's spells were useless, and even with her new power her body was no stronger. Kairi next cast, "Blizzara!" A barrier from Riku appeared in front of Naminé to protect, and once the blue light of the spell diminished Naminé burst through the shield from the other side, running for Kairi. Kairi easily caught Naminé's keyblade on her own and knocked Naminé away. She aimed her keyblade at her, preparing another spell, but hesitated. Before Saïx had attacked, Naminé had been trying to help them. The way she was acting now, Kairi had the impression that she was possessed. Even if she had been acting of her own will, Kairi was unsure if she would be able to hurt her.

"Fira!"

Her hesitation had lasted through the end of the silence spell. Kairi rolled back from the ring of fire that surrounded Naminé and spread to scorch anything within five feet of her.

"Kairi, look out!"

Kairi turned in time to lift her keyblade against Riku's. Instead of retreating for another attack, he continued to press his blade down against hers.

Sora came at Riku from the side, and Riku had to release one of his hands to throw up a shield to block him. Kairi pushed his keyblade up enough that she was able to duck to the side and swing for his stomach. Sora had moved around his shield to get behind him, but as he also went to strike, Riku vanished into the darkness, leaving Sora and Kairi swinging at air. Kairi saw him reappear next to Naminé to help her stand from when Sora had apparently knocked her over.

"I don't see this ending any time soon," Sora whispered to her. "We're pretty evenly matched."

"And as soon as the rest of the Organization realizes that and sends backup we're screwed," she whispered back. Her only guess for them sending so few people in the first place was that the Organization thought they would not have the will to fight their friends. Before she could propose or even think of a plan to escape, she and Sora were again separated by a dark fire from Riku. Kairi cast "Magnet!" to hold Riku and Naminé together, but a quick movement from Riku and the spell instead only attached Riku's arm to the wall.

She did not see what happened to him, for Naminé cast "Blizzara!" A sparkling blue light shot from Naminé's keyblade to Kairi, who put up a barrier to block it and stop herself from being encased in ice. As soon as her barrier faded, she had to cartwheel away from a dark fire that Riku had cast with his good arm, then lifted her keyblade to block Naminé.

"Sile-!" Naminé was cut off by Kairi planting a heel in her gut. She stumbled back, struggling to regain her breath, eyes wide with shock that Kairi had attacked her in such a way. A faint guilt prickled at her mind, but Kairi quickly forced it away. She was not truly hurting Naminé and it had only been in self defense.

Stormfall lifted to face Naminé and Kairi cast, "Blizzara!" Surrounding Naminé in a block of ice seemed the only way to stop her for the time. Naminé cast an aero spell at the last moment to knock Kairi's arm away, sending her blizzara towards the wall where it harmlessly faded away.

Still regaining her breath, Naminé lifted her golden keyblade at Kairi and gasped out, "Ice!" Kairi sidestepped the attack, another blizzara on her lips, but just as she cast, she heard the squelch of pierced flesh and a strangled gasp.

Fear embraced her before she had even managed to turn around. The icicles that had passed Kairi had gone into Sora's back, now melting away by the hot blood that sought freedom from the holes in his torso. His falter was all that Riku needed before he plunged his keyblade into Sora's chest.

A scream stuck in Kairi's throat as she helplessly watched a bright heart emerge from his chest before his body faded into vanishing lights. She had seen this before, him fading, her trying to catch him only for him to disappear completely. This time she could not move, even after he had faded.

But she had seen this before. His heart taken by a keyblade, his body faded into darkness, and then his Heartless there for her to bring him back… he was not gone. She could save him. She could save him. She searched the room for a sign of his Heartless to appear. She did not know how she did it before, but whatever it was she could surely do it again to save him.

Darkness surrounded Riku's hand, and nearby a shadow Heartless rose from out of the ground. Kairi felt a leap in her chest. That was him! She had only taken the first step towards him before Riku's keyblade came down upon the Heartless, killing it with a single blow and sending the heart contained within to join Kingdom Hearts.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Kairi stumbled towards the window, eyes fixated on Kingdom Hearts and the heart flying up to it, soon too small to see. She placed a hand on the window, and something in her touch made it respond and move aside so that she could step out onto the balcony to be closer, but he was gone.

Ice shattered behind her. Sluggishly, Kairi turned to see Riku helping Naminé from the ice block she had made, before he turned to her, keyblade aimed at her as a dark orb gathered on the tip, taking in all light around it and darkening the area. A cloud had moved over her mind, and by the time she realized the danger, she only had enough time to summon her armor before he released the attack.

It struck her, and though the darkness could not reach her through the armor, she was thrown over the balcony, past the chasm and into the dark city. The armor absorbed the force of grazing a building and skidding across the street into a wall, so that she only felt its new dents breaking into her skin, but even that hardly registered as she stared through disturbed dirt and a cracked helmet at the Kingdom Hearts above. She tried to sit up to better see, ultimately having to dismiss the broken armor, allowing her to see the moon more clearly and feel the darkness that spread from it.

When Riku and Naminé stepped out of a Corridor of Darkness down the street, the power grew more intense, aggressive almost. The two showed no sign of surprise when she pushed her aching body to its feet. It seemed she was the only one surprised, because she could not fathom what she was rising for. They had Kingdom Hearts, and she was the only one left. Perhaps it was because of her own fatal stubbornness that she stood, or, perhaps, because of the quiet voice that whispered, _"Don't let him go."_

Riku teleported in front of her, fist aimed for her temple. Despite his speed, avoiding him was not too difficult, since her trembling legs were hardly supporting her to begin with. The challenge was in staying upright after she ducked away, and then avoiding the next punches. He withdrew when she summoned Stormfall, but his own dark sword appeared in his hand. In her slowed state, he easily pried the keyblade from her grasp and tossed it aside. Before she could call it back, he dismissed his blade and placed his hand over her heart, darkness curling on his fingers.

Though there was no force behind the attack, the darkness pressing against her heart sent Kairi lurching backwards with a cry. The haze vanished from over her mind, but her body still refused to listen to her, spasms wracking through it as it forced the darkness out again. She was on her side, unable to even make herself sit up. In the seconds that passed, she waited to be faced with unconsciousness, to wake up facing whatever the Organization could possibly have left for her, but it never came, and instead she heard scuffling in front of her.

Warmth and green light surrounded her, chasing away the spasms and her injuries. A hand took hers, pulled her to her feet, and Kairi found herself looking into the blue eyes of a Keyblade Master. "Are you okay?"

She was still alive, so she nodded. Aqua turned back to Naminé and Riku, who Kairi saw were trying to break out of a barrier that had been placed around them, more powerful than any Kairi had ever made if they could not simply teleport out of it. Aqua lifted her red, white, and black keyblade, but Kairi touched her elbow to get her attention. Even if she had been planning on fighting them before, that was when her life was the only one left on the line. "I don't think we can fight them. They're not their normal selves, they're possessed by darkness or something, and there's more of them."

Aqua glanced to the pair. Naminé was muttering under her breath, casting to break the barrier. She looked back to Kairi. "Do you know a way off this world?"

"A Corridor of Darkness, but I'm not sure where the portal opening is, otherwise I just have the glider, but that can only take one of us," she rambled, nervous in front of the keyblade master. Perhaps because she knew this was her guardian angel that she had been admiring from afar for so long. Or maybe because Riku and Naminé had broken the barrier.

"I can get us both out on the glider. This way!" Aqua began to run back in the direction she came, but stopped when Riku teleported in front of her, and the two locked blades. Kairi looked back to Naminé and lifted another barrier to block an ice attack, though it nearly fell with her cringe at what a similar attack had struck a few minutes before.

By now accustomed to Naminé's charging while she had a barrier up, Kairi jumped over the barrier to land on the other side of it and Naminé, then cast blizzara at her. Naminé was caught in another block of ice. Kairi moved around the ice block to see Aqua and Riku clashing keyblades. She aimed her own keyblade at Riku and called "Gravity!"

Riku stumbled as he was pulled towards the ground. All his movements became jerky and slow. Aqua dashed to Kairi, took her wrist, then threw them both into the air and onto the nearest roof with an Aero spell. A barrier was placed in the air over the street so that Riku and Naminé could not easily follow them, then she looked to Kairi. "Can you fly it? If not, you'll need to give me-" Aqua cut herself off and pushed Kairi to the side. With her keyblade she blocked a glowing arrow that had almost struck the back of Kairi's head. Her gaze hardened in the direction it came from and she lifted her keyblade to guard. "Why are you here?"

The one she spoke to was crouched on a near ventilation pipe that stretched over the roof, an arrowgun in each hand as he smirked at them with a gleaming yellow eye. "Did you have fun in the Realm of Darkness? Can't say it's a vacation I'm jealous of." Xigbar then looked to Kairi. "Kudos for not dying yet, Princess. Thank you, though, as we do need you mostly alive."

"What do you want?" Aqua snapped.

"You have Kingdom Hearts and you don't have hearts yet," Kairi noted as she glanced up to the moon, but her chest constricted and she quickly looked away.

"Good on pointing out the obvious. I thought you'd have figured it out by now. At least, you always portrayed yourself as being brighter than this." He disappointedly shook his head before shrugging and shooting at them. Aqua reflected the attacks back at him, though before any could connect, he teleported away.

Before Kairi could see where he would reappear, she saw wisps of darkness out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Saïx coming at her with his claymore. She jumped back from him and onto the ledge of the building, glancing behind her to see the barrier was still there, and Riku still releasing Naminé on the street below. She glanced back to Saïx again as he swung his claymore once more. She leapt backwards onto the barrier, searching it with her own magic energy to sense where it would end and strengthen it so it did not break under her.

Saïx brought his claymore down on the barrier, shaking it, cracking it. Kairi glanced down below her again to see Riku and Naminé waiting for her to fall. She looked up as Saïx brought his claymore down again. Before the barrier could shatter, she leaped over Saïx's head, landing smoothly on her feet, but Saïx twirled his claymore around him horizontally so that it crashed into her back. She stumbled to where Xigbar teleported to next. Xigbar grabbed her keyblade arm, but Kairi took her keyblade with her left hand and pushed it into Xigbar's shoulder. He stumbled away from her, spewing profanities as a hand went up to his shoulder to press against the bleeding wound.

Kairi stepped away, still standing only by the grace of adrenaline, and switched her keyblade back to its proper hand, eyes darting around to make sure Saïx did not hit her by surprise. He had switched his attention to Aqua, however, who had lured him out onto another barrier she had made in the air. As soon as he was standing on it, she threw herself back onto the building and took the barrier away.

Xigbar lifted his good arm to shoot at Aqua as she landed, but Kairi swung Stormfall upwards and knocked it so that his shot went far above Aqua's head. She took another swing for Xigbar, aiming to break his last arm he could shoot with, but he teleported away.

On the opposing rooftop he appeared, shooting at them again. The girls dove behind the ledge together, the shots going over their heads "What do we need to do?"

Aqua dwelt on this a moment before holding her hands out to Kairi. "I can use a spell to protect you, but I need the armor."

Kairi hastily passed it over. "It's kind of broken though."

"It fixes itself," she said as she slid the pieces onto her arms. A hand found Kairi's shoulder as she focused on her. "Is there anyone else we need to get? The boy who was with you?"

"There's. . ." Kairi's voice cracked, and her eyes drifted from Aqua's face to the moon, chest constricting again. "He's. . ."

Xigbar teleported to the neighboring rooftop and began to shoot from there. As he did, Saïx appeared on the roof again and swung upwards at the girls crouched next to each other, aiming to knock them off the building. Aqua blocked Xigbar, Kairi put up a barrier in front of Saïx, but his claymore broke through it, slowing only enough that they knocked into the ledge and collapsed to the side instead of tumbling over it to the street below.

Saïx lifted his claymore for a last swing. He hesitated, however, when a Corridor of Darkness opened behind him. He looked to it and instead brought his claymore down on the one who ran out of it. The claymore caught on two keyblades, then Roxas spun, prying the claymore from Saïx's hand and throwing it across the roof. Saïx stepped back from the follow up swing, but was too close to the roof's edge and a swift kick from Roxas sent him over.

Roxas dropped to one knee so that Xigbar's shots would go over him and extended his hand to Kairi. "Come on!"

"Ven?" Aqua asked in surprise. Roxas apparently did not realize she was talking to him, for he did not respond and only snatched Kairi's hand and pulled her through the portal. Kairi herself was struck still of voluntary movements. The portal closed as soon as Aqua stepped through after them. Roxas opened another portal and pulled Kairi out through it, Aqua still following, into the concourse under the Twilight Town train station.

The corridor closed, and the three evaluated each other in silence, save for Kairi and Aqua trying to catch their breath from the battles.

"You're not Ventus," Aqua finally said, though there was a hint of doubt at her own words.

Roxas gave her an unreadable look, then shook his head. "I'm Roxas." He looked to Kairi. "You okay?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but no words would come out. She was not sure which words she wanted to say, or which ones would be true. The battle was over but her heart continued to race. She struggled to take her mind off of the two people staring at her, to not think about their expectations of her response, to process what had just happened. How did she get from her old bedroom with Sora to Twilight Town with Roxas and Aqua?

When she failed to respond, Roxas put a hand on her shoulder, nearly making her jump. "Are you okay?"

Their stares were unnerving her. They needed to stop. They needed to go somewhere. "Yen Sid's." That was a good place, right? That was where they could regroup to… she was not entirely sure what they could do, and judging by the hurt look in Roxas's face he did not like the idea, but for what reason she could not figure out.

A Corridor of Darkness opened, and Kairi prepared to summon her keyblade until Roxas started walking into it, gently pulling her along. Aqua stopped them. "It's not safe to keep using those."

"Then you can take the long way," was his short reply before walking through it, Kairi following if only because their hands were still holding each other's. Despite her disapproval for the corridors, Aqua followed them, a distinct frown on her face that only increased Kairi's discomfort.

Before she could decide what she thought of this, they were on the other side of the corridor in Yen Sid's study, avoiding a thundaga spell and a flying shield sent their way. Just as quick as the attacks had come, calls of "Kairi!" came. Stormfall finally appeared in her hand before Donald and Goofy could get too close, and she faintly registered looks of surprise and hurt, but could not bring herself to care.

Yen Sid did not notice, for instead he rose from his desk with rare emotion on his face and the surprised declaration of, "Ventus!"

"Roxas," was the annoyed mutter in return. The final in their party stepped out of the portal, and Yen Sid announced her in the same way. Aqua started speaking with him, but now sure no one was going to touch her, Kairi dismissed Stormfall and tuned out the world around her. There was too much too fast, but even deliberately neglecting to take new information in, she found she struggled to think about what had happened (and really, she did not want to).

When she felt the nudge on her arm that made her jump, she had gotten nowhere in her thinking, and the interruption had only brought back whatever panic she had managed to subdue. It was Roxas that had touched her, and though she feared to find him angry, he was only watching her with concern. Annoyance was there too, but she could feel it was not directed at her, only at where they were and the people there with them. He hated it there and yet for whatever reason had still brought her there on her request. Why?

He did not know that she had abandoned him.

She quickly looked away from him before the weight on her heart could become unbearable, only to find the alarming sight of four other pairs of eyes watching her expectantly. She froze, something stuck in her throat, forbidding her to do or say whatever it was they were expecting of her.

"Kairi," Aqua's gentle but wary voice reached her. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Where's Sora?" Donald added, and Kairi decided to ignore him. Silently, she was grateful Aqua had specifically asked to tell her, since she was henceforth ignoring Donald and Goofy, her shame would not let her look at Roxas, and Yen Sid was still far too imposing and untrustworthy, his tall stature now that he was standing only solidifying this in her mind.

She kept her eyes trained on Aqua, praying her voice was clear and not shaking. "We got separated from them," she said, gesturing to Donald and Goofy with a lean of her head, "Then found you. They put is in the dungeon. A girl named Naminé got us out, but Saïx separated us. They tricked him into unlocking Riku's heart. Then, we looked through a magic mirror. Kingdom Hearts was finished, the Organization was there, and Naminé and Riku. Everyone had yellow eyes. Sor—We tried to leave, but Riku and Naminé stopped us."

She knew what happened next, she did, but maybe if she did not say it out loud it would not have to be real. Even with everyone's gazes willing her to say something, she kept quiet, poring over the moment, looking for some hint or hidden truth to tell her she had seen wrong. Naminé had sent an ice attack at her, she had dodged, captured Naminé in ice, turned around. . .

Not giving any a chance to question, she breathed out a faint excuse and hastily walked to the door. The moment it shut behind her she was running down the stairs, and did not stop until she was at the bottom and sure no one had followed her.

As soon as she stopped running, she regretted it, for the panicked energy had nowhere to go and released itself through uncontrollable sobs. She slumped against the wall, failing to breathe, failing to focus on anything but the image of Sora impaled with the ice that had been meant to hit her.

**A/N I have moved into the dorm! Huzzah! The wifi. . . actually works. . . I'm not sure what to do with this. Aside from upload chapters.**

**Thanks for reading, and special thanks to those that reviewed! I love seeing your reactions. They make my day.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

When the door of the Mysterious Tower opened behind her, Kairi cringed and hugged herself tighter. The footsteps that followed were neither graceful enough to be Aqua, nor loud enough to be Donald or Goofy, and that left only Roxas. He sat on the steps beside her, but from her place curled up against the railing she could not see him. Instead she gave her attention to the crown necklace locked in her fingers.

"Hi," he said.

She regretted fleeing to such an obvious place instead of hiding. At least she had enough time to get rid of any signs of her crying before he found her.

"Going to pretend I don't exist?"

Her head lolled forward and twisted to the side to see him. She wanted to be angry, but of the many people who deserved her anger, he was not one. She forced it down, as well as the feeling of discomfort from having him watch her with that slight frown, and murmured, "Sorry."

Roxas shrugged and looked forward, focusing on some point far off in the world, lips still downturned. "You don't have to apologize to me. I don't want to talk to them either."

"That's not what I meant." He looked to her again, and she fought the urge to look away. A few loose strands of auburn hair partly obscured his face from her vision, at least. "I'm sorry for ignoring you. I'm happy you're back." He nodded. The following silence was unnerving, and if only to fill it, she asked, "How did you know where Aqua and I were?"

"I got… impressions, from Sora. I knew you were together, and in The World That Never Was, and if I was released then something must have happened to him, and you'd be alone with the Organization. So I went there, saw the battle, went through another corridor and got you."

Impressions. What did that mean? He still did not seem to know what she had done (or really, what she hadn't done), but he knew she was with Sora, and that was bad enough, wasn't it? "Oh."

"Oh?"

"I'm sorry for not bringing you back, I really did try, it's not like I chose him over you or anything, I don't like either of you more than the other, just differently, and, I couldn't, and I'm sorry."

She was received with a blank stare. "What do you mean?"

He really was clueless. She regretted speaking, knew she should not have said anything in the first place, could not fathom what possessed her to do so. "I. . . When I left the Organization, it was with Axel, he said I had to kill Sora to bring you back, but I couldn't, and I'm sorry."

To her greatest surprise, his mouth turned up in a faint smile. "Kairi, when I left the Organization, you still felt bad about killing a _Dusk_ months before."

The observation left her frozen, blinking absently at him. "I still do." Although, if a Dusk were to attack her right then, she was certain she could kill it without much remorse.

Roxas's smile grew slightly, though it never reached his eyes. "If you feel bad killing a Dusk, I don't think you could kill an innocent, complete person – friend or stranger – no matter the incentive."

She had been so focused on the choice, the thought had never struck her. New bitterness threatened to surface at Axel for putting her in such a position, but she quickly forced it down again. Roxas was not too upset with her, if he was at all, and she needed to be grateful for that. She was too tired to be angry much longer, anyway. "Thank you."

He nodded, then looked back out to the world. Kairi sat up, taking her weight off of the railing, and ran a hand through her hair to push it out of her face. "What did I miss up there?"

"Lots of explaining and storytelling. Apparently I have the heart of some kid named Ventus."

She searched him for a sign that she had heard wrong, but found none. He went on to explain, "So Aqua – or Master Aqua – had two friends, Terra and Ventus, and there was an old guy named Xehanort, and everything went to hell. Terra was lost in Radiant Garden, Aqua fell into the Realm of Darkness, and Ventus lost his heart and went into a coma or something. I look like him, Aqua says she can sense his heart in me, and now the wizard guy wants to rip it out. Then they kicked me out of the room so they could discuss."

Kairi's lips pulled into a tight line at his words, and despite how much she tried to suppress her frustrations, she finally had a reason to dislike Yen Sid other than just her possibly misguided instincts. "They can't make you do that."

Though the bitterness had been apparent in Roxas's voice at the end of his explanation, it evaporated into indifference in an instant as he shrugged. "Guess we'll see."

"What does that mean?" she questioned. He shrugged. Not sure how to continue, she played with the crown necklace in her fingers for a few moments before asking, "So what happened to you?"

"A guy named DiZ sent Riku or whatever his name is after me, so they could bring me back to Sora to wake him up from his yearlong nap. Then they put me in some kind of digital Twilight Town with a new set of memories for a few days before I had to join with him, and that was that. Naminé was there too."

"Riku and Naminé were there?" she repeated, and then upon processing what he had said, "What do you mean had to join him?"

His expression was straight, unreadable. "They said I wasn't meant to exist and that he wouldn't wake up without me."

"And you just willingly went back to him?"

"I didn't have much of a choice."

"That's not fair though! You should be able to choose for yourself."

"So you wish I hadn't done it?"

She went rigid as her teeth grit together. "Well it doesn't matter much now since he's dead."

Roxas jolted next to her, then went quiet. The silence did nothing to dissipate her anger. "I didn't mean it that way."

"And what way is that?"

"A choosing way."

"Then how did you mean it?"

He was quiet again, but this time, her anger slowly began to evaporate as she watched him ponder her question. "Taking Sora out of the picture… do you think I should have given myself up for them?"

After several seconds of scrutinizing his face, she decided on the question he was failing to word. "Roxas… your existence is no less than anyone else's. Doesn't matter what anyone - Riku, Naminé, or the other guy - says. You never have to just throw yourself away because someone else says so."

He was not smiling, but he was frowning a little less at her answer. "The people upstairs don't seem to agree."

"So? Maybe you do have that guy's heart, but it's your choice to give it away or not, not theirs." She paused, fiddling with the crown as she tried to word what she had to say next. "I probably didn't help with this. I didn't treat you right in the last months in the Organization. I'm sorry."

The frown was gone, replaced with the smallest of smiles. "Apology accepted. I may need some help getting them to listen to that though."

"Then let's go up there and tell them," she declared as she pushed herself to her feet, then cringed upon realizing she would be seeing Aqua after running out of the room in a fit of emotion.

If Roxas saw, he did not comment. "Thanks. Up we go then?"

She looked up the steps, and for a moment the quiet voice that liked to remind her how tired she was almost broke through, but she silenced it with summoning an elixir to drink on the way. "Up we go!"

Together they ascended, the only sound their footsteps echoing through the tall tower until at last they were at the top. Perhaps they should have discussed a plan, perhaps she should have let Roxas speak for himself, but when they ceremoniously opened the doors to the study, and she saw Aqua look up to them from the book she was examining on Yen Sid's desk, Kairi let the words spill out before she could lose what little nerve she had intact. "You can't just make Roxas give up his life, no matter who it is for."

Yen Sid's unreadable, and thus terrifying, gaze was upon them. Aqua looked at them with something in the realm of shock and confusion. Roxas continued before either could speak. "I don't even know this Ventus, and you don't know me, and you've already decided that I have to throw myself away for him. Not interested."

Aqua abandoned the desk to walk toward them, shaking her head and now only looking alarmed. "No, Roxas, that wasn't what we meant at all!" Still, Roxas took a step back from her as she approached. "We would never ask you to do that."

"You said you were going to remove his heart, and then sent me out of the room so I couldn't listen to you talk about how."

Aqua stopped a few feet away from them. "I just thought it would be good to check on Kairi." The girl in question was feeling more ridiculous every second she stood there. At least Donald and Goofy were no longer in the room to see her. "I guess it was bad timing."

"I have been showing Aqua the safest known way to separate body and heart," stated Yen Sid from behind his desk. "As it is a process that naturally leads to darkness overtaking both parts, there has never been a fully safe way to do this. If such was the end of our capabilities we would not ask you to do this, Roxas. With Kairi, however, the process can be altered."

Kairi shuffled uncomfortably as all eyes turned to her, hoping her embarrassment over the misunderstanding was not too evident. "Me?"

"Tell us. Aside from light magic, what has your highest aptitude in magic always been for?"

The question made her frown. She had never tried light magic before, since she had never known she had a heart to have light. "Healing."

Yen Sid nodded. Aqua and Roxas finally looked to him instead of her, and Kairi let out a breath of relief. "Light and healing have always belonged together. They are creation, that from which the children of ancient times made the worlds that we now know. As a Princess of Heart, the strength of your restorative abilities would be near of if not equal to that of your light. It is how you called Sora out of the darkness, and even created a new body for him to inhabit. Much less, I would think, would be needed to make sure Roxas does not slip into the darkness."

She swallowed down any threatening emotion. Why did they have to talk about _him?_ "I don't even know how I brought Sora back."

"It is in your heart's instinct to protect your friends. It knows how, even if you consciously do not."

She did not know what to say to that, so she said nothing. Yen Sid gave his attention instead to Roxas. "The choice to comply is entirely yours."

Roxas looked between them, to Yen Sid's even expression, Kairi's somber one, Aqua's hopeful one… and ultimately nodded, adding with lacking enthusiasm, "Sure."

Aqua's face spread into a wide smile and she took another eager step towards him. "Thank you, Roxas!"

He nodded, looking mildly concerned that she might try to hug him. The sight almost made Kairi smile.

"If you two will let us resume, I will finish showing Aqua what she needs to do, and then you may be on your way to Castle Oblivion to awaken him. Donald and Goofy must attend to a situation on their home world, but will drop you off on their way."

"Shouldn't we be trying to stop the Organization first?" Kairi could not help but ask. "They have Kingdom Hearts."

"A powerful moon made in the image of Kingdom Hearts, yes, but not Kingdom Hearts itself. From what you have all said, achieving it has not given them any kind of power over the worlds and those within. Until we can find out what their true intentions with it are, it would be more beneficial to do what we can to increase our numbers against them."

Kairi's shame at continuously saying things that always came across ridiculous in the end kept her silent, but Roxas fortunately had the same question as she did. "What do you mean, 'not Kingdom Hearts itself'? That's what we were working towards that whole time."

Despite their incredulous behavior, Yen Sid did not seem annoyed with them. Still feelingless, actually, to a point that reminded Kairi too much of certain Nobodies. "The true Kingdom Hearts can only be summoned and controlled by its counterpart, the χ-Blade. The Kingdom Hearts you have constructed from the hearts of people is certainly powerful, as all things in Kingdom Hearts' image will be, but could hardly be considered a fragment of the power the true Kingdom Hearts holds."

"So what did the Organization want with this one?"

"That has yet to be seen," stated Yen Sid. "You and Kairi would know best of anyone."

Kairi could guess that it had something to do with taking Riku and Naminé under their control, but saying this or anything out loud did not settle well. Glancing at Aqua out of the corner of her eye, she was unsure she could say anything if she wanted to. Roxas again responded instead. "They weren't exactly interested in telling us the truth of anything going on." By the hostility in his voice, Kairi doubted he believed anyone to be telling him the truth anymore. Except perhaps her.

He turned to leave, but Aqua stepped forward to take his attention. "Something for the two of you." She held out to each of them a thick silver bangle, and Kairi noticed that she had a matching one on her own arm, partly obscured by her sleeve. Though Kairi accepted hers without question, Roxas stared skeptically at the one for him. "It's to protect your heart from direct outside manipulation." Aqua subtly glanced to Kairi at this, though not enough to go unnoticed. "Since we still don't know what caused the memory loss."

"Forget already? I don't have a heart."

"For Ven's?"

His shoulders heaved as if sighing, but he accepted the bangle without another word, slipped it on his wrist, and left the room. Kairi attempted an awkward half bow to the wizard and master before skittering after Roxas with her head lowered.

They started down the stairs, and Roxas glanced behind them to make sure the door was shut before saying, "Sorry for all that for nothing,"

Kairi waved a hand dismissively. "There was good reason to be concerned." He gave her a disbelieving look that she did not bother to argue against. Her fluster at the situation was too obvious. "I think I'll live."

"I hope so. So what did he mean by a Princess of Heart?"

"Oh." How had she forgotten to tell him this? Then again, so much had happened she was unsure how she could tell anyone a fragment of it all. "Adding to the list of great lies from the Organization, I have a heart. One of pure light and no darkness, which means I'm a princess, apparently."

The hint of a playful smile reached his face, one she had not seen since so long ago on the clocktower. "Okay then, your highness. What should we do now?"

She returned the smile, ignoring the guilt that threatened from daring to be anything other than miserable after all that had happened. She had her friend back, she deserved at least one moment with him, right? "Don't call me that, or I'll order you banished or beheaded or something."

"Queen of Hearts style?"

"No, Princess of Heart style, weren't you listening?" They shared a moment of laughter, and for that moment she felt lighter, but it was quickly stifled by guilt that cut her laughter abruptly. Roxas, thankfully, did not notice. "I don't really feel like doing anything, honestly."

"Fine with me. I don't either."

They wandered the tower in comfortable silence, and while neither could say they were entirely happy, they had each other there, which for the moment was enough.

* * *

Save for the stench of darkness brought by the Heartless wandering inside, The Land of Departure – or Castle Oblivion, as the others had taken to calling it – was exactly as Aqua had left it eleven years before. The walls were white and clean, ceilings high, and doors foreboding. The Heartless she encountered were trivial in comparison to the ones she had encountered in the Realm of Darkness, and she need not even summon her keyblade to defeat them, instead dispelling them with quick spells.

Even as she defeated them, she feared a fight to be the only thing that may pull Roxas and Kairi from their dazes. They walked behind her, holding each other's hands but giving no other recognition of the other's presence, much as they had been on the Gummi Ship ride there. Through the entire trip, she had been able to think of no words of sufficient comfort to give to them over either of their plights. They were still upset at her – Roxas's empty gaze became a scowl every time he noticed her looking at him, and Kairi refused to meet her eye.

She would be lying if she said it did not hurt. Perhaps she had been too hopeful for her first encounters with people after being alone for so long. Everyone had been irritated with her before she had left, and after years in the darkness she should have expected they would still become irritated with her.

When she found the door to the chamber, she wasted no time for ceremony and walked straight in and around the throne. Still as young and baby faced as the day she had left him sat Ventus, breathing softly, and if she dared believe it, a faint smile came on his face at her presence. She could not help smiling herself as she knelt and rested his cheek in her hand. "I'm back. Sorry it took me so long."

Ventus's smile widened, as did Aqua's as excitement she had not felt for years found its way into her heart. She didn't realize just how much she missed that smile until she saw it again. She stayed there, watching him as she gradually allowed herself to realize that she was finally going to have one of her best friends back, though when she began to worry it was a dream, she stood and faced Kairi and Roxas, who were still at the entrance, awkwardly shuffling as they awaited orders.

"Roxas, I need you to stand right here," she said, gesturing to in front of and beside the throne. He did so, and Aqua stood facing him. She then guided Kairi to be standing by them, facing Ventus, so that they were all looking in at each other.

While she had run through the process multiple times in illusions with Yen Sid, she still could not help her nervousness as she summoned Master Keeper. She did not think she would fail, even if by Roxas's expression he believed she would. She and Yen Sid had discussed many scenarios, and she knew how to react accordingly for each. Unfortunately, one of those was that Roxas was using Ventus's heart as his own, hence his ability to display emotion despite being a Nobody. Even if his body was saved, there would not be much left of the Roxas Kairi or anyone knew if that were true. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to, Roxas."

He looked aside. "Just do it."

If his emotions did come from Ventus's heart, then Ventus would be just as unhappy to see her when he woke up. Every moment she hesitated, it seemed more and more like a bad idea. With what resolve remained, she lifted Master Keeper. "Everyone ready?"

Kairi nodded, still not meeting her eye. Roxas shrugged carelessly. She pointed Master Keeper at his chest, muttering the incantation Yen Sid had taught her until a string of light connected the keyblade to Roxas's chest. The light spread, wrapping around him before doing the same to Aqua.

All at once, it was gone. For one terrifying moment, Aqua thought she was falling back into the Realm of Darkness, for nothing was around her in any direction, and yet she could feel herself being pulled further and further away from the castle as she floated downward. Only the feeling of water passing smoothly and painlessly through her lungs reminded her where she was.

She landed on dark ground, but knew from her own previous dives what to do. With a step, light burst from the ground, chasing the darkness away in the form of doves, until the entire image of the heart station was revealed. Ventus, she at first thought upon seeing the blonde asleep on the glass. But the sunset orange of the background was unfitting for her friend, the buildings decorating the platform unrecognizable, and that was not Ventus's keyblade in the sleeping boy's hand, but a black and white one held forward, as opposed to Ventus's reverse-grip. _Two Become One,_ it told her.

Of all the things she had expected, Roxas having his own heart had not been among them.

_What are you doing here?_

Aqua started, and whirled around, looking for the voice. No one else was on the platform that she could see. "I'm here for my friend, Ventus."

_Ventus? He's this way._

At the edge of the platform, stain glassed steps appeared, leading up and away. Squinting into the darkness, Aqua saw that they were connecting to another station she had been unable to see before. Ventus's?

_What are you going to do?_

"I'm just taking Ventus's heart out." Aqua admitted as she walked up the steps, warily looking for the speaker. The voice was familiar in a way she could not place.

_Will that hurt Roxas?_

"Kairi will make sure it doesn't."

The answer seemed suitable enough for the speaker, for it said no more.

As the voice had said, the station she found was of Ventus, sleeping just as peacefully in the image on the ground as he did outside in Castle Oblivion. Once she stepped onto the platform, light seeped up into her body, wrapping around her like an embrace. The light was pure, not unlike Kairi's, and strong. Hopefully strong enough that he would be able to make it on his own now.

Having to separate two hearts had not been in any of the theories Yen Sid had presented, but she could improvise. Standing in the center of the station, she summoned Master Keeper and held it up as she closed her eyes. Letting it guide her, she searched for where the two hearts were joined together, until a keyhole appeared in front of where her blade was pointed. She pushed the keyblade forward and turned it.

Light from the keyhole consumed everything, and the last thing she was aware of was a strain between the two hearts as they attempted to disconnect. Then she was back in Castle Oblivion, keyblade aimed at Roxas as he collapsed, caught by Kairi so that he lay across her lap.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

As soon as Aqua saw him give a thumbs up, however weak it may have been, she turned back to the throne. Master Keeper vanished as she again knelt in front of Ventus, a hand taking each of his. "Ven? You awake?"

His eyes opened, focused on her. She nearly lurched forward to hug him but Ventus beat her to it, knocking her back so that she was sitting with him dangling from her neck, doing little to support himself. She held him up with a tight embrace, hiding her face in his shoulder so none could see the threatening tears, only hear the muffled laughter that shook her body. "Sorry I took so long."

"Who cares? You're here!" he announced loudly, hugging her tighter for a moment before attempting to release her, though she still had to hold him up. "Uh, help me stand?"

With a firm nod and firmer smile, she stood, pulling Ventus up with her. Her hand moved to his shoulder to steady him as soon as his feet were under him. He wobbled a few moments before gaining his balance, then grinned up to Aqua before hugging her again, as if he could not get enough of her affection. Just like he would have before, as if the eleven years that had passed and the events leading to their separation were nothing. She gladly returned the embrace.

"What happened to you?" he asked after they had been embracing for some time. "You just, disappeared."

She took her time finding an answer, running her fingers over his hair, even if more to soothe herself than him. "I went to find Terra, but he started falling into darkness. I took his place, and ended up in the Realm of Darkness until Kairi got me out a few hours ago."

He leaned back to squint up at her. "You've been there this whole time?" Her nod earned a frown. Before she could think of something to fix it, he asked, "What happened to Terra?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "He's… I'm not sure." What could she say about the Terra-that-was-not-Terra with the Nobodies? A good chance to ask someone about it had not arisen, and the situation was too confusing to dare try to guess on her own. "We'll find him though."

His frown remained for moments more before being replaced with a smile. "Well, I got you back, he can't be too far behind."

The thought was nice, even if his logic unsound, so she smiled and tossed his hair. "Of course. Who knows, we may even find him on our current mission."

"Which is…?" He leaned around Aqua to glance at the other two in the room, as if they could give him a clue, but quickly focused back on Aqua with widened eyes and a finger aimed at the other boy who looked so like him.

"Roxas. Your heart was with him."

"I thought I was with Sora."

A brief glance over her shoulder showed that Kairi was watching them intently, even as she whispered to Roxas. Aqua returned her attention to Ventus. "I'll explain on our way out." He looked concerned by her delaying to tell him, but said nothing as she knelt beside Kairi and Roxas. "How are you feeling, Roxas?"

He squinted at her through half lidded eyes. "Still here."

At least the hostility had been entirely his and not at all Ven's. "Can you walk?"

As if insulted by the question – though Aqua figured he just did not want to show weakness to someone he apparently disliked so much – Roxas removes Kairi's arms from around him and pushed himself to his feet, though he almost immediately fell over and Kairi had to steady him. With all the stubbornness he possessed, he marched to the door, undaunted even as Kairi walked at his side to aid him.

**A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

They were talking about Sora. What exactly they were saying, Kairi could not hear, for they walked far enough behind her and Roxas that only unintelligible whispers reached her ears. Someone's eyes focused on the back of her head, as if staring at her would betray the answers of what happened to him. All it did was make her shiver uncomfortably. Why did people have to look at her? She didn't have anything to give them, and certainly not about Sora.

_Don't think about him,_ she reminded herself, as if that could stop her. In a vain attempt for distraction, she focused on Roxas, on what she may need to do to help him recover, but if only to spite those who would dare see him as inferior, he walked with quick, powerful strides, without a hint of the fact that minutes before he had not been able to stand. If anything, she was having the greater trouble keeping up, nearly having to jog to keep pace. Whatever she had done to keep him from getting hurt when Ventus's heart was removed – and really, she was not sure what she did – left her more exhausted than he, and after her second stumble which almost tripped her onto the floor, she summoned an elixir.

"Thaaat's not a very good idea," Roxas said when she was halfway through drinking it. She finished anyway, and soon was matching his pace with ease. "Remember that night Demyx kept us all up and then you tried to keep yourself awake during missions with elixirs?"

Kairi "hm"ed in something just shy of amusement. "That night was a disaster. But that was five elixirs, this is only my second, and it's better than passing out on the floor."

He shrugged and put his hands in his pant's pockets as he walked forward, strides now lacking in briskness since he had started talking to her. A shame, because the pace seemed too slow now, the energy from the elixir urging her to run, and leaving her hands shaking when she refused to do so. "It wasn't all that bad," he said. "We did get that fun sleepover."

"What sleepover?"

"When Demyx kept us up, since we couldn't sleep anyway, you camped out in my room."

"I never did that." The resolve in her voice nearly made Roxas stop, but the elixir urged her to keep walking, so he followed at her side. "I spent the night reading and trying to make earplugs out of notebook paper."

"But I remember you coming to spend the night with me," he insisted. "Maybe drinking all those elixirs messed with your memory."

"Elixirs don't mess with anyone's memory, they make it better if anything. I remember every little detail from after I drank them." That had been the day Demyx informed her that Nobodies were unable to have feelings – a particularly cruel joke, looking back, considering the elixirs seemed to make her feelings more prominent. Maybe she shouldn't be drinking them after all… No. She needed to stay awake. "I beat my record for hearts collected that day."

"If you didn't spend the night with me, who did?"

"Axel? Wasn't me."

He frowned at her answer, watching her until she shrunk into herself in discomfort, then for her sake looked forward again to their goal of the Castle Oblivion doors. "What happened to Axel, anyway?"

"I don't know," she admitted, and with effort kept any bitterness from the rest of her words. "He wasn't exactly nice to be around asking me to kill people, and he got aggressive so I left. I doubt the Organization got him if you're worried about that. He's too sneaky for that."

"He's just too sneaky," he murmured, and after a moment of silent agreement between them, he asked, "Do you think we could all ever be friends again? No lies this time."

"That would be a dream." A good dream, but a dream. For the moment she could only hope to keep Roxas.

At Aqua's beckoning, the doors opened as they approached them, showing the solo path and dark void surrounding it. A green crystal hung in the air a ways onto the path, waiting for them and for the Gummi Ship to return so they could reunite. To this they walked, and halfway there she realized, "Wait, what lies did Axel tell you?"

"All of them. He knew who I was and where I came from and all sorts of things about me, but didn't tell me even when I called him out on it."

Being friends again was seeming even more unlikely. But at least she still had Roxas. At the crystal they stopped (though Kairi walked in circles), and before Aqua and Ventus could catch up, Roxas said, "Thanks for keeping me alive back there. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to make it."

Any pleasure at the thanks quickly evaporated. "And you went through with it anyway?" A shrug was his only answer. "We don't want you to die, Roxas." Aqua and Ventus were drawing nearer, and Kairi dropped her voice to a whisper as she locked her fingers with his. "I, at least, really want you to live."

If he wanted to respond, he was unable, for Aqua and Ventus stopped near them then, Aqua saying, "Since we haven't had proper introductions yet, Roxas, Kairi, this is Ventus." She immediately realized she had never properly introduced herself either, and added, "And I'm Aqua."

Even if she had already said their names, Roxas and Kairi each stated their own, followed by Ventus jabbing a thumb at his chest and declaring, "You can both call me Ven! So, now we go to stop this Organization XIII?"

"We have to figure out how to, first," Kairi stated. Her stomach suddenly twisted from something unpleasant nearby, sending her heart racing and her fingers tightening around Roxas's . "A dark corridor just opened."

Saïx appeared behind Aqua, his claymore striking her before the wisps of darkness surrounding him had time to vanish. Roxas was first to react, lunging at Saïx as a black and white keyblade appeared in his hand. Ventus and Kairi looked to Aqua, the former calling out her name and rushing to her even though she healed herself as she tumbled across the ground and came up on her feet. He had not taken but a few steps towards her before stumbling, hands going to his head as he grimaced.

Kairi reached a hand to him, but Roxas collided with her, having been thrown by Saïx. They tumbled and stopped several feet away, Kairi first to untangle herself, pulling out Stormfall as she rose. Roxas pushed himself to be sitting up, holding his ribcage, but before Kairi could heal him a rush of water burst in a column out of the ground beneath them, pushing the two away from each other.

As she brushed wet hair from her face and coughed out what water had found its way into her mouth, Kairi caught a glimpse of Aqua cradling Ventus on the ground, unconscious even as he continued to grimace and cry out in pain. Aqua put up a barrier to hold off Saïx, then healed Roxas from where she was so he could get up to fight. Then Demyx was in Kairi's way, summoning another column of water. She stepped back, into another one, icy water caressing her back and calves, shredding through the skin. She lurched forward in surprise, into the other column just before it ended, earning stinging eyes, throat, and lungs for her trouble.

The icy column ended and she backed away from Demyx, caught between watching him and watching the ground for signs of another attack. A silent cure spell erased the cuts and most of the pain from the water in her lungs, but her vision remained blurry, and her voice hoarse as she said, "I really don't want to fight you, Demyx."

"Kairi, switch!" Aqua was leaving Ventus, running towards her, and Kairi dare not argue. Aqua blocked the next attacks from Demyx as Kairi sprinted to Ventus and knelt by him, the green light of a cure traveling from her hand over him.

Nothing. He was not injured, but unconscious he remained, groaning with his face contorting in pain. His heart, then? That would explain why Aqua had switched with her, though Kairi did not have an idea of what she could do about it.

Glancing up again, she saw that Aqua had traded with Roxas, so that she faced off against the more powerful Saïx and Roxas was left avoiding Demyx's water attacks, though even with just that he was repeatedly struck, hard enough to make Kairi wince. He still did not have enough of his strength back.

_Help Ventus, then Roxas._ Forcing herself to look away – and praying Aqua and Roxas would stop anyone before they could attack her – Kairi placed her hand over Ventus's chest, and imagined her light traveling from the tips of her fingers into his heart, wrapping around it. Though she had little experience with using the light, it responded easily, and Ventus's face relaxed as whatever pain he was feeling instantly stopped. She continued to reach out for whatever was causing it, and through her closed eyes she saw it, like a string connecting his heart to the one hurting him. She opened her eyes, looking at a balcony on the castle, where stood a blonde girl in the Organization's coat scribbling into a spiral bound book. "Master Aqua, on the balcony!"

Aqua had been lithely avoiding Saïx's swings with swift cartwheels, pausing whenever an opening showed to throw magic at him from her keyblade, but in the next opening she instead aimed it at the balcony. The blue light of the ice spell never reached, however, for a dark barrier appeared in front of Naminé, shielding her. "Take him!" Before Saïx could reach her again, she dashed away, headed for the castle. Kairi took a tentative step from Ventus, who immediately began to show pain again, but Aqua placed a barrier around him, so at least none could physically attack him.

Before Aqua could reach Naminé, Riku appeared in front of her, slashing with his blade, which she easily deflected. Saïx was rushing Kairi, however, so she was able to watch no more as she sprung successively from his attacks, with little time to attempt any kind of counter strike. In what spare moments she had, she looked for glimpses of the others: Aqua had gotten past Riku and was taking on both him and Naminé, Ventus was still unconscious but no longer showering sign of pain from within the round barrier, and Roxas continued to struggle against Demyx, dripping and on the verge of collapse. But how could she help when she could do little to even protect herself?

Through wisps of darkness, Demyx and Saïx teleported so that she instead was facing the Melodious Nocturne, for the first time with a clear view of him. Even though a Nobody, never had emotion been absent on his face, and he was the single loudest member of the Organization she had met. An uncomfortable feeling hit her chest at his blank expression and yellow eyes, more fitting of Saïx, and the silence from him aside from the tame strum of his Sitar to control the water. _Why would the Organization possess one of their own?_

Avoiding his water attacks was easier than negating Saïx's manic swings. Why they would switch if it put her at the advantage, she did not at first know, but she had no interest in fighting Demyx, and the precious extra seconds between his attacks would be ideal to help Roxas.

Except, when she looked for him, he was not there. Only the sick feeling of a Corridor of Darkness nearby.

She avoided another sequence, threw an aero to distract Demyx, swept her eyes across the field – Aqua was still fighting Riku and Naminé, Ventus was still unconscious in the barrier, and Roxas and Saïx were nowhere to be seen. "Roxas?!"

Icy water struck from below, ripping through her skin as it threw her to the side and onto the ground. Blurry eyes registered black moving in her peripheral, and as she struggled to her feet, her hand stretched to the side, light rippling from her fingertips.

The scream was the first of his voice she had heard, surprising her enough that she slipped in the water and collapsed again. Maybe she had forgotten who she was fighting, but that was pain and it was his and it was her fault.

"I'm sorry!" she shrieked as she pushed herself up, only making it to her knees. Demyx was holding his face, covering whatever she had done, but the pained moans continued from him. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry…!"

She held out her hand, stuttering over a cure, the green light just gracing Demyx when Saïx was beside her. She hit the ground before the claymore's swing could reach her, then summoned Stormfall and dug it into Saïx's leg. He stumbled back, leaving chunks of flesh behind, and though he immediately was past the surprise and tried to step forward to attack again, Kairi lifted a barrier, just strong enough to hold him away as she came to her feet by a sudden strength that boiled from her heart. "Where's Roxas?"

Another strike of the claymore broke the barrier, but Kairi was well out of its range, and as the weapon hit the ground a stream of light poured from the tip of Stormfall, catching Saïx's upper body and throwing him away from her. "Where did you take him, Saïx!?"

He gave no response, but where else would Saïx have taken him other than the Organization's stronghold? He had to be there. She just needed them to open a Corridor of Darkness for her.

Kairi lunged for Saïx, keyblade raised. He lifted the claymore to block. She dismissed her keyblade and ducked under the claymore, rolling behind Saïx and pulling Stormfall back into her hand as she slashed at the back of his knees. He swept out of the way, swinging back for her, but a barrier stopped him. Kairi came to her feet and dismissed the barrier, holding her keyblade at the ready. "Open a corridor!"

The faintest smirk appeared on his lips. "Am I to believe there is a viable threat behind that command?"

Her hands were turning white around Stormfall from her grip, teeth gritting together as her anger continued to boil and bubble to the surface. She threw an aero spell to blind him, then leapt for him, but a column of water came up between them. She could not stop herself, only trip herself to the side so that she did not run into it. Another came up where she was falling, shards of ice piercing her skin and her throat when she accidentally inhaled some.

The attack ended. Kairi coughed up a mouthful of water, then raised a barrier and her keyblade against Saïx's next attack. His claymore broke through the first and threw the second out of her hand. She called it back, but it did little good as he brought his weapon down on her again.

Vision vanished for a moment, pain and someone calling her name vaguely registering, but for a moment she decided not to care. If she did nothing, would they kill her, or would they take her to where Roxas was?

The former did not matter if she lost her last friend anyway. The latter was the only way to get him back.

The claymore struck her twice more that she remembered. Then all was dark, sound and feeling distant. She was almost certain she was unconscious, until she felt a hand on her chest, warmth and light seeping from it and into her heart.

Then the fire struck her, lighting her tired body with energy and sealing her wounds without a mark for memory. Even with her eyes closed, the light blinded her, but as it left she blinked them open to find her clothes blue and similarly colored flames dancing up her legs. Her heart felt swollen in her chest, magic rolling from it in thick waves that pooled at her skin and with nowhere else to go, wrapped her in an aura of light.

Her Wisdom Form had not been so powerful before, and with Naminé standing thirty feet away tentatively watching her, it could not be with her that she had taken on this new power. The only one missing from the battlefield was Aqua, Ven still unconscious in his barrier, and the four in the Organization coats watching her. She only needed one to open a pathway to Roxas.

Aqua did not speak to her as Naminé did, but Kairi was sure it was she that had helped her to enter this form, and with Ventus in the barrier, there were no risks to any allies. Saïx moved to strike first, but Kairi slid out of the way, throwing ripples of fire at him from her keyblade to dissuade him. Riku and Naminé she stuck together with a magnet spell, and a gravira held them to the ground so they could not interfere.

Columns of water rushed up out of the ground in her direction, but Kairi held them off with a barrier, setting her eyes on Demyx and silencing his Sitar so that he could summon no more. He could still try to hit her directly with it, but if he could catch up to her then she deserved it.

Saïx had recovered and was rushing her. She ducked under and away from his swings, sliding across the ground until she was behind him. He spun, swinging the claymore horizontally, but a reflect spell sent him spinning in the opposite direction and gave her an opening. Kairi leapt and firmly planted Stormfall in his shoulder, pushing him to his knees as she hit the ground. Grip still firm on the weapon, she leaned over his shoulder and yelled, "Open a corridor!"

The angle she had the keyblade forbid him from standing or moving to get away from her, but still he could turn his head to glare at her, the rare emotion startling her enough that for a moment she almost forgot that she had the upper hand and retreated. She held her ground, however, and pushed the keyblade in deeper.

He grit his teeth at the pain but refrained from any other show of it, instead asking in a voice that nearly betrayed his weakness, "You're going to leave Ventus behind?"

The barrier would disappear from around him if Aqua left, but Kairi could disengage from Aqua before going to The World That Never Was. Facing the Organization alone was better than leaving Roxas with them. "Open it!"

The water came from underneath her without warning, ice ripping through her skin as she and Saïx were pushed in opposite directions, the keyblade tearing out of his shoulder. Her feet glided smoothly across the ground, and green light was passing over her to heal her wounds before the column had disappeared. She blinked the water from her eyes to watch Saïx dive into a portal, a trail of blood in his wake. Her eyes scoured over the others, but Demyx, even though his Sitar had been unsilenced, did not bother to fight her, only opened a corridor below Riku and Naminé so that they fell into it before diving in himself, the portal closing after him.

A quiet hung on the empty battlefield, the only sound a faint hum from the magic emanating from Kairi, though soon she could not hear it over her own frantic breaths. She glanced down to her keyblade, spotted with blood, the teeth clutching chunks of flesh and black cloth. With a shouted curse she shoved the useless stick in the ground, then sunk down beside it as the light wrapped around her.

**A/N Thanks for reading, and special thanks to those who reviewed and to BlackSandHeart for betaing! **


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

When the light faded, Aqua found herself again on the battlefield, though in a different place than before, with more blood strewn around her than she recalled had been there, as if for a few moment she had stepped outside of time. She whirled around, a hand over her heart – when the light had been around her, she had felt as if something had opened it and was continually pulling her light and strength out of it, though just as quickly filling it again. Not a bad feeling, but a concerning one, especially considering the changes on the battlefield. The Organization was gone.

Even though Ventus was still inside the barrier, she ran over, dismissing it with a touch, and did not accept that he was safe until she could see him breathing. "I'm so sorry, Ven," she said as she slipped the bangle off of her wrist and onto his own. Why had she not done that in the first place? Then she could have stopped that girl, Naminé, immediately. Now she could only pray she had stopped her in time.

Ventus was okay. The Organization was gone. She knew they had taken Roxas, and that left one person. Kairi was hunched on the ground with blood spotted on the ground around her, though she had not a scratch on herself. As if she could not comprehend its existence, she stared at Stormfall in the ground near her, more crimson than blue, tiny chunks of flesh stuck to it.

Knowing they could possibly have only moments before the Organization returned, she quickly knelt by Kairi and put a hand on her shoulder. "We need to get back inside the castle."

The hand broke Kairi from a daze, and her blue eyes were soon blurred by tears as her weak voice trembled, "We have to go to The World That Never Was."

"We don't have a way to get there, and it's not safe—"

But Kairi did not listen, instead pushing herself to her feet and stumbling away from Aqua, eyes darting over the area as if it would show her the way. "I have to go, we can't wait."

Aqua stood, but hesitated in approaching, lest she make situation get worse. "Kairi—"

"I can still save him!" she shrieked, before her voice broke and her shoulders shook with sobs. "He's still alive, I can save him, I can save him."

Seeing nowhere that could take her to Roxas, Kairi collapsed on the ground again, choking on sobs as she continued to whisper of saving him. The innate urge to comfort drove Aqua a step forward before she held herself back. Interfering only drove people away. _You're awful, Aqua._

She flinched at the thought, spoken in Ventus's voice. One of many thoughts that had been on eternal repeat in the Realm of Darkness. But Ventus did not seem to think that anymore. . .

The more awful thing to do would be to ignore her. Aqua knelt by Kairi, first putting a hand to her shoulder to get her attention. Kairi looked up, then let herself be pulled into an embrace, burying her face in Aqua's shoulder. "I have to get him back."

"We will get him back," Aqua assured her, though her only hope on the matter was that the Organization had taken him instead of just killing him. A hope that could too easily be turned against them. Kairi said nothing, but continued to hide in Aqua's shoulder as her sobs grew weaker.

After a time, just before Aqua could again bring up that they needed to go inside the castle, Kairi's cries abruptly stopped and she went stiff. Murmuring an apology, she stood and walked to the castle, leaving Aqua to scramble for whatever had pushed her away.

She had been through much and would open up on her own time, Aqua finally told herself. But that did not stop her from continuously thinking over where she had gone wrong as she returned to Ventus, lifted him, and followed Kairi into the castle. Through the doors, she found Kairi pacing in circles and hugging herself with one arm. The other held an elixir that she sipped from, even though Aqua could still see no harm done to her person. But best not to ask.

Aqua lay Ventus against the wall and put her hand on his chest. Light was still coming from his heart. She did not realized how tense she was until she relaxed. It was still there, still safe. Of course it was. Naminé had looked so alarmed when Aqua made it past Riku and attacked her that she could not have been finished with whatever she was doing to him. That hope she held onto as she placed her forehead on top of Ventus's head. "You'll be okay. And then we'll get Terra, and we'll all be together and this nightmare will be over. Just hang in there for me, okay?"

For several moments she waited there, knowing she should not expect him to respond. Finally, she lifted her head and looked back to Kairi. She had finished the elixir and instead wrapped both of her arms tightly around her shaking body, oblivious to the tears trailing down her face as she watched a spot on the floor near the far wall. Her gaze was no longer empty, but focused, even though there was little there that Aqua could see of interest. "Kairi? Can you come help me with something?"

She jumped and looked to Aqua, then back to that spot before nodding and shuffling over. She opened her mouth to speak, but soon shut it and cleared her throat before trying again. Her voice was still weak. "What is it?"

"That girl, Naminé, she did something to Ven. Can you figure out what it is and maybe reverse it?"

The first part, Kairi already knew, but the question left her a shade paler. "I. . . I can try."

A trembling hand lay over Ventus's heart. Kairi closed her eyes, biting her lip to keep it from shaking. If it had not been so necessary to help her friend, and to move forward, Aqua might have felt bad for asking Kairi to help. As it was, she only eagerly watched for Kairi's verdict.

When Kairi opened her eyes, she noticeably shrunk away from Aqua's stare, tilting her head so that her hair hung over her face to hide it. Her fingers curled into fists in her lap. "He. . . I mean, I'm not an expert, but, his heart doesn't seem to be hurting, not that I can tell. So nothing for me to fix, if I could, I don't know how, I guess I could figure out how to, but, yeah. . ."

She really had stopped Naminé before she could do anything. The thought brought a sigh of relief, and Aqua placed a hand over Kairi's. "Thank you."

The hand did nothing to calm Kairi as she hoped, only make her stiffen. Berating herself, Aqua retreated. "Can you tell me what happened out there?"

Considering Kairi still had yet to say what happened to Sora – they had all been guessing and filling in the blanks based on how she acted – Aqua half expected her to refuse to speak, but with a small voice she said, "They took Roxas, and then I was overpowered, and then you and I went into Wisdom Form and I chased them away."

"Wisdom Form?"

Kairi toyed with her fingers, which turned into toying with the crown necklace she wore. She glanced to the spot across the room where she had been looking before, then looked back down to her lap. "I don't understand it. It's drawing out the potential of the keyblade, or something."

That almost made sense. She would have to ask Yen Sid for better details when they returned to the tower. They just needed Ventus to wake up. With the Organization likely to attack at any moment, waiting for Donald and Goofy would be too dangerous.

Kairi was looking across the room again. Aqua situated herself against the wall beside Ventus, watched Kairi's focusing on that area, and finally asked, "What are you looking at?"

A finger lifted in the same direction her eyes were looking. Still, Aqua followed it, again to only see the white floor. With evident confusion, she looked back to Kairi to find her staring back at her, waiting for her reaction. "The spider. It's huge."

Aqua's eyes darted back to the spot, saw nothing, and returned to Kairi. "What spider?"

Her pointing became fervent as her voice cracked. "There! The one right there!"

Aqua held her hands out to calm her. "It's okay, Kairi. I believe you." But there was definitely no spider, or any bugs, in the entire castle. The castle was cold and empty, something Aqua was too conscious of as she continuously reminded herself that this had once been her home. The Land of Departure had spiders. Castle Oblivion didn't.

Ventus stirred. Aqua flung from the wall so that she could face him, watching him for any hint of pain or show he was hurt. He blinked blue, dazed eyes open. "Ven? Are you okay?" She reached out a hand to his shoulder.

He recoiled from her.

Her hand froze there in the air. Ventus slid to the side along the wall, then pushed himself up it to be standing. "I'm good. What happened?"

Aqua dropped her dangling hand to her side. It was nothing, really. It didn't mean anything. She stood beside him. "We were attacked, and a girl named Naminé tried to do something to your heart." She quietly hoped he would infer what happened to Roxas. If Kairi was ready to cry over Aqua not seeing a spider, mentioning her missing friend could bring a disaster. "Do you feel any different?"

His face screwed up in thought, before a soft smile hit it and he shrugged. "Feel fine. Can we go look for Terra now?"

Even if he seemed fine, a heavy dread still found home in her stomach. Or maybe she was just overthinking things. He had only been startled. That was all. She stopped Naminé in time. Matching his smile, she nodded, then reached a hand down to Kairi to help her stand. "We'll need to go back on our gliders."

"Kairi doesn't have armor," Ventus pointed out.

Already aware of this, Aqua was sliding the armor pieces off of her arms and handing them off. It belonged to Stormfall, anyway, and it had chosen Kairi. "I'll visit the armory and then we can go." She fixed to set off, but after a thought, said, "You two should come with me."

The amount of suspicion in Ventus's voice surprised her less than it should have. "Why?"

"There's still lots of Heartless in here, and we don't know when the Organization may try to come back." That, and if they did face anyone, she would rather them not find out that she had made the castle so that anyone that was not her could only fight with cards. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. "You'll be safer with me."

He complied, though the air of suspicion hung off of him through the rest of their time in the castle. Despite herself, Aqua found she hoped that she had been too late to stop Naminé.

* * *

She did not have her freedom entirely taken from her, a blessing few of the others under their control could say. Unlike Riku who sat blankly beside her, staring out the Grey Area's window into the dark city, she at least had independent thought, though she had little a mind of what to do with it. She still had less freedom than Xigbar, Saïx, and the other one had, which she had at first credited to their loyalty to Xemnas. That was still true of Xigbar and Saïx, though of the third the same could not be said. Perhaps they assumed the fear of Xemnas would keep him in line, but only a surface look into his heart revealed that he had ulterior motives. But she held enough independence to decide not to tell anyone about it, just like she decided not to tell Xigbar that she knew he would be coming to her and why he would long before he ever actually arrived.

Naminé only looked up from her sketchbook when an unconscious Roxas was dropped at her feet. "Yes, Xigbar?"

His shoulders were sagging as she watched, and perhaps it was a trick of her mind but he seemed to have developed more grey hairs since they had started. A result of his special project from Xemnas. "Kid's still not responding even after we took the bracelet off. Superior said for you to look into it."

Asking Xigbar had only been to not raise suspicion and risk losing what free will she had. She had already known something was wrong with Roxas. Naminé stood from the couch, leaving her sketchbook behind on the armrest. Riku stood after her – he always followed her, by more influence of her own than any volition of his. They had stripped that from him. With his assistance, they lifted Roxas onto the couch, and then her hand found its way over his heart as her eyes slipped shut.

She did not experience the dive as most others did, but instead in an instant found herself standing on his heart station, just as she remembered from when she had prepared him to return to Sora. DiZ had said he could not possibly have a heart when she told him. Riku said it proved she had one of her own, and they both tried to ignore the guilt of what they were doing to him. It wasn't too hard anymore.

There was one difference in his heart. Chains of a blue crystal stretched across the platform in all directions before dropping over the edge and disappearing out of sight with the rest of the station. Enough to forbid anyone from reaching his heart from the outside, but on the inside, all she need do was strike the chains with Destiny's Embrace. They broke apart, fading away before they could slide over the edge of the platform.

Perhaps the job was done, but that did not explain why the chains had appeared in the first place, or what they were. A guard from Kairi, Aqua, or Yen Sid? She wandered the platform, light steps echoing into the void as she contemplated. Just as she was beginning to believe the problem had been dealt with entirely, the crystal rose out of the station, forming into a humanoid across the platform.

Naminé sent a blaze of fire ahead of her as she charged at the crystal, keyblade ready, but the crystal ducked away from both attacks and all that followed. Naminé braced herself to dodge at a moment's notice, but it never fought back, only danced away, leading her around the platform. Only with a lucky hit in its shoulder did she realize why it evaded her, and just what it was she was fighting.

These were memories.

She happened to be an expert at manipulating memories.

As she aimed Destiny's Embrace at the crystal, she opened her eyes in the physical world and yanked her hand from Roxas's chest. His back arched, chest following her hand as the memories were ripped out of it, following Naminé's hand until she threw them across the room.

The memories were no longer crystal, but had taken a feminine form, all distinguishing features shrouded in an Organization coat, though Naminé doubted they had any true form. They were, after all, just memories. Disjointed memories, no connections to the hearts of others to allow them an identity.

Yet with nothing short of determination, the memories stood, and with a voice no one could quite hear, threw an aero spell in Naminé's direction. She was nearly thrown off her feet, but Riku, unmoved by the attack, moved behind her, catching her against his chest.

The couch Roxas lay on was not as fortunate. It flipped onto its back, sending Roxas tumbling off of it and into a Corridor of Darkness. Riku dashed for it as soon as the aero ended, but it had closed.

Before the memories could attempt another attack, Xigbar shot them with his arrowguns, and they collapsed in a limp heap. "What the hell was that?!"

"She was guarding Roxas," Naminé stated as she picked up her sketchbook from the floor. "She can work for now."

"This thing? As if!" Xigbar opened another corridor. "Go get him back."

* * *

Though years in the Realm of Darkness had strengthened her endurance, even Aqua felt that she was reaching her end when she looked up the seemingly endless steps of the Mysterious Tower. She had already been awake for hours before being rescued, and that had only been followed by multiple fights against the Heartless and Organization XIII.

Her tire seemed little in comparison to Kairi's, however, for as they walked up the stairs the girl summoned another elixir. Aqua was certain this time that she could not be injured (even if she had veered off course many times while flying and ultimately had to join Aqua on her own glider), and that could only leave one other reason for drinking it. As she and Terra had both learned once while competing for who could stay awake longer, that was a bad idea.

She debated with herself until they arrived on the first landing, where finally she placed a hand on Kairi's shoulder to stop her. Even after, she took several moments to gain the motivation to say, "Kairi, maybe you should stay down here and rest."

Despite her insistence on keeping to herself, Kairi failed to hide her hurt, tears almost hitting her eyes again. This should have affirmed Aqua's decision – if Kairi was so emotional, she did not need to be around when they inevitably talked about Roxas and Sora – but even so, she almost regretted interjecting.

Though she expected her to argue, Kairi nodded, and walked off down an appearing hallway – sipping her elixir despite the suggestion to rest.

"Are we going to go?" Ventus asked before Aqua could seriously consider stopping her. Maybe after they talked with Yen Sid.

Up the stairs they went, feeling limbs growing more tired with each step. She knocked on the door at the top, and at Yen Sid's beckoning they entered. He was at the window, watching the stars, but returned to stand at his desk at their arrival. "Ventus, I am pleased to see you have been brought back safely."

"Thanks. Still not sure what all I missed."

"We shall do our best to inform you soon," Yen Sid assured him. "Where are Kairi and Roxas?"

"Kairi is downstairs," Aqua said. "And. . . we lost Roxas. When we were coming out of the castle, the Organization was waiting for us. Naminé tried to do something to Ventus—"

"I feel fine though," he interjected.

Aqua decided to drop the subject for the moment. "They managed to take Roxas. I accidentally activated Kairi's Wisdom Form and we scared them off." Hopeless as the rest of the event was, the last part was a pleasant surprise. If that form so easily scared away four of their number, they still held a chance.

"Have you any idea what they have taken him for?" the retired master asked in his ever even voice. Ventus and Aqua both shook their heads. "It is possible that the Organization has taken him with intents to control him as they are Riku and Naminé."

In which case, the Organization was gaining new members much faster than they were. "Is there anyone else we could get to join us?"

"Donald and Goofy will return to us as soon as they finish at Disney Castle. I have done what I can to summon Mickey, but as he has been evading my sights for some time, I am not sure if he will respond."

"What about Terra?" Ventus asked. "Any idea where he is?"

"I lost sight of him as I did Aqua all those years ago. I do believe it is possible to find him, but I do not have any leads."

Aqua stepped forward then. "Actually, I meant to ask you about that. I didn't know how to word it before. Really, I'm still not sure how to. Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, looked much like Terra did when I found him in Radiant Garden before I fell into the Realm of Darkness. When I was near him, I sensed something in him that was definitely Terra."

The shift in the room was instant. Aqua felt Master Keeper hum, responding to the sudden tension, but seeing no enemies she held it at bay. Yen Sid had not changed, so it could not be from him. Except he was looking behind her and to the side. Aqua turned to find Ventus's blue eyes focused on her in a glare. "Ven?"

Her words broke him as if from a trance. He stepped towards her, loud enough for the stomp to echo through the room if his shouting did not drown it out. "You said you didn't know where Terra was!"

She recoiled as if struck, taking several steps away from him, but his heated glare followed her. "I don't, I just said—"

"—that you found him in Radiant Garden, and that there was some part of him in Xemnas! You lied to me in Castle Oblivion!"

Her thoughts were racing, too fast for her to remember how to stop them, or to regulate the words that tumbled out of her mouth. "Why would I lie to you? I didn't, Ven, I just didn't see the point in saying—"

"You probably don't even want to find him!" The accusation left her dumbstruck. Of course she wanted to find Terra, she wanted nothing more than to have both of her friends back! "You're awful, Aqua."

She flinched. Even after he ran from the room, she could only stare at the door, trying to find words and reason as the little hope that had carried her for so long threatened to diminish.

**A/N If that seemed out of character for Ven, good. It was supposed to.**

**I don't remember if I ever said, so if I did not, Donald and Goofy are dealing with the Cornerstone of Light incident.**

**Thanks for reading, and special thanks to everyone that reviewed! I don't really know how to respond to reviews most of the time, but reading them and seeing what everyone thinks makes me a very happy Amicus, so thanks for leaving them!**


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